Links to resources

Textbook

• Site of the text for Stat 311, containing data sets, R code, errata:

Sites related to R

• Official R web site: Under Contributed (on the left) you find many longer and shorter guides to R, in many different languages.

• R primer by Chris Green

• Manuals, FAQs, Newsletter, Wiki, Books, Introductory Guides, Recipes for fancy graphics in R

In the Current News: Surveys, Observational Studies, and Randomized Experiments

• Gallup Polls: The Gallup Organization’s site. Frequent updating with current polls and good archive of polls conducted in last few years.
• PollingReport.com   A collection of recent poll results on business, politics and society from many different sources.

• National Council on Public Polls Excellent article entitled “20 Questions a Journalist Should Ask About Poll Results ”.
• National Opinion Research Center A research center that conducts many scientific polls.

• http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/datadir.htm  A set of links to all of the major polls (USA Today, CNN, NY Times, ABC, Gallup Poll , ...). Maintained by The Washington Post.

Survey Methodology

• http://www.publicagenda.org/  Nice discussions of issues connected to surveys on “hot” public issues (abortion, crime, etc.). In particular, click on “Red Flags” for each issue to see examples of how question wording, survey timing, and so on affect survey results.
• http://whyfiles.news.wisc.edu/009poll/index.html  University of Wisconsin Why Files on Polling. Discusses basic polling principles.

Graphical Tools

• Gapminder : A fascinating graphical exploration tool.

General Resource Sites

• Chance News : A newsletter of miscellaneous media items useful for class discussion.
• The Junk Science Home Page : The name of the site says it all. The author of this site show no mercy in his criticisms of topical research studies.
• The Skeptics Society: A society committed to empirical and scientific approaches. Opinionated and insightful.
• HyperStat: an online statistics reference that provides multiple perspectives and styles.
• Data-Store: a data repository.

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