Is your data ready?
Thu, 17 May 2012 21:12:00 -0500
STATISTICA cited in prestigious journal
Mon, 14 May 2012 14:05:00 -0500
What American Women Do For Work, via NPR
Fri, 04 May 2012 14:00:00 -0500
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By Alan J. Fridlund
StatSoft, Inc.'s STATISTICA/w, Release 5.0 is a head-turner. It's a statistical package so chock full of statistical analyses, graphs, and helpful features that it's bewildering to behold. STATISTICA is almost too much to grasp, but the ample written manuals, plus the on-screen manual and help facility, eased my trepidation a bit.
STATISTICA features exploratory techniques such as distribution fitting and normality tests, along with a range of box plots with plot "brushing" that allows point-and-click isolation of outlying cases. STATISTICA builds upon these with an awesome array of both simple and sophisticated analyses. These include basic parametric and nonparametric tests; experimental designs; univariate and multivariate analysis of variance and covariance; multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis; cross-tabulation, multiple response analysis, and log-linear analysis; factor and discriminant analysis, and canonical correlation; survival analysis; structural equation modeling and path analysis; quality control charts; Monte-Carlo simulations; and a full compliment of time series statistics that includes ARIMA forecasting models, seasonal decomposition, and both auto- and cross-spectral analyses.
For each of these techniques, you can see your data and results graphically using STATISTICA's formidable charting toolbox. There are hundreds of two-dimensional and 3-D business, statistical, and icon (symbolic) graphs. Group and subset graphs are easily constructed. Three-dimensional graphs can be rotated, overlaid, compressed, and zoomed in on. Drawing and text entry facilities let you embellish your graphs ad infinitum. An innovative animated brushing technique lets you see which data points are affected by changes in a variable. And if you don't like STATISTICA's options, you can use style sheets to build your own graphic type.
STATISTICA's customizability is another hallmark. You can record macros that let you automate sets of commands. There's also an internal command language for creating custom analyses of graphs. Finally, there's an internal version of Basic for creating turnkey applications with custom dialog boxes, data input, analyses, and graphs. The language lets you call external Windows DLLs for specialized processing.
All this razzle dazzle would be for naught if it were hard to accomplish, but I found just the opposite. All of STATISTICA's functions were easily accessible from pop-up dialog boxes, with each numeric and graphical result displayed in a separate window. Data can be imported from and exported to the usual spreadsheet and database formats, as well as the formats of STATISTICA's competitors. Your data, results, and graphs can all be intermixed by cutting and pasting within Windows, and then stored or printed. An integral word processor lets you create and edit annotations. Further, STATISTICA supports DDE and acts as both an OLE client and server, letting you take direct advantage of other Windows applications.
STATISTICA/w, Release 5.0
Jammed with features, STATISTICA has the earmarks of a breakthrough package.
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In a comparative review of analytic graphics programs and statistics packages featuring graphics options, nine Windows applications were compared:
Harvard ChartXL, release 1.0 Systat, release 5.0 Stanford Graphics, release 3.0 Minitab, release 10 SigmaPlot, release 2.0 STATISTICA, release 4.5 Statgraphics, release 1.0 Mathematica, release 2.2 TableCurve 3D, release 1.0
STATISTICA was selected as the clear winner in the category of high-end programs; the reviewer concluded:
"Pure and simple, StatSoft's STATISTICA 4.5 is the king of data visualization tools. With literally hundreds of available plots and an awesome interface, STATISTICA sets the high-end standard. Its drawing tools, page-layout controls, rotation and perspective dialogs, and a myriad of other options enable total control over literally every aspect of the analysis, plotting, and output processes.
I found the unique 3D animated cross-section plots particularly useful for presenting and explaining trend data. STATISTICA integrates well with other applications and it supports DDE and OLE as a client and server.
While its analysis and plotting capabilities are unmatched, STATISTICA also provides a textbook example of interactivity under Windows. For example, the right mouse button invokes pop-up menus and provides context-based shortcuts. As you work, the toolbar continually changes to reflect the most logical set of options for current or pending tasks. (...) Outstanding integration between the numeric and plotting functions enables easy interactive experimentation with different plot types and configurations. Despite all the bells and whistles, STATISTICA still offers snappy response.
STATISTICA 4.5 stands out as a highly interactive solution that offers all the power most users will ever need." (page 41).
The Statistics Department of the University of Augsburg (Germany) has just published results of a collaborative research project (authored by A. Hilbert, U. Bankhofer, B. Elsholz, and U. Niederocker) designed to evaluate and compare the quality of statistical algorithms, accuracy, and computational precision of statistics packages available on the market.
This 62 pages long technical report (reprints are available from the University) contains detailed analyses of the performance and characteristics of the evaluated programs based on dozens of specific tests conducted by the four statisticians. The results of all of these tests were converted into scores on 67 evaluative dimensions which, in turn, were reduced to final quantitative indices on nine summary dimensions. The following table (based on the Final Summary table, B.2, page 53 of the report) reports the overall sums of points received by each of the compared programs.
As is evident in the summary table, STATISTICA has received the highest overall rating (79.26).
In his review of STATISTICA, Spence Meyers concluded:
"STATISTICA is a powerful program (...) The Windows interface is extremely user-friendly. All graphs are infinitely adjustable with only a single mouse click. (...)
All of this is fine, but what does it do? Well, almost everything. Windows Magazine labeled it a 'best buy' in its November 1994 issue. This is for good reason: STATISTICA offers one of the most comprehensive lists of analyses available to a Windows program. This analysis power as well as great database power comes with a very small amount of learning. For statistics affectionados this program will barely be anything to learn at all. A novice, I found myself going to work right away. At first, I played around with the graphics capabilities of STATISTICA, but soon I was performing many small statistical analysis tasks with little or no aggravation. This program really does everything I could imagine." (pages 1, 3, and 8).
In a comprehensive, comparative review, six statistical data analysis programs were benchmarked and evaluated:
Minitab, release 10 SPSS, release 6.1 SAS, release 6.1 STATISTICA, release 4.5 Siss, release 2.0 Systat, release 5.04
The editors selected STATISTICA as the clear winner of the comparison:
"The winner of this comparison is STATISTICA, the program which is the easiest to work with, but still very powerful and features advanced and fully automated graphics. Also, STATISTICA's integration with Windows is the best (of the compared programs)." (page 51).
The April '95 issue of Software Magazine (a leading Australian computer magazine) is devoted to statistical software, and includes a number of interviews with users of statistical software applications. STATISTICA was mentioned and praised more than any other software package (in practically all articles), and all comparative statements made by the users (in several articles) were always in favor of STATISTICA. For example:
Robert Hermann, a region director in the Australian Department of School Education, stated:
"Comparisons were made between a number of packages then on the market. Following the assessment, CSS: STATISTICA (DOS version) was chosen. Subsequently, the Office has upgraded to STATISTICA for Windows. Our main concern in selecting software was that it had to be simple to use, yet powerful enough for our applications. STATISTICA satisfied these both criteria." (page 35).
Dr. George Srzednicki, at the Department of Food Science and Technology (University of South Wales), stated:
"We chose STATISTICA because it can handle the statistical analyses in all areas in which we work. It meets our needs and unlike some other packages, it is very friendly and easy to use. It is a great tool for getting quick results with good import and export facilities and excellent graphical output." (page 36).
Dr. John Murphy, Associate Professor in Applied Mathematics in the Mathematics Department (Monash University):
"Murphy chose STATISTICA for its ease of use and integrated time series analysis to reconstruct climatic events [in his research on dendrochronology, solar cycle activity and climate reconstruction, including events such as El Nino]. (...) Murphy: 'STATISTICA is very powerful and comprehensive in statistical procedures it offers. Importing data is easy and, importantly, the graphics are excellent.'" (page 41).
Dr. Keith A. McGuinness, a Senior Lecturer at the School of Biological Sciences (Northern Territory University), stated:
"I chose STATISTICA because of its power, ease of use, graphics capabilities, and because of its thorough integration with the Windows environment. My larger experiments produce thousands of observations and are designed for complex, mixed-model analyses of variance. STATISTICA handles these with ease. Equally important, it makes it easy to inspect the data prior to analysis, for errors, outliers and fit to various assumptions required. Since purchasing STATISTICA, I have uncovered errors in datasets, or other problems which I would not have found with the software I previously had. (...)
Overall, I am extremely happy with this application. I continue to be impressed by the care which has clearly been dedicated to making the software both easy and intuitive to use. It works for me rather than the other way around." (page 40).
In the Product Survey: Data Analysis Software, the editor of TEST & MEASUREMENT WORLD concluded:
"If your professional life revolves around statistical analysis, STATISTICA/w is probably the most extensive software package you could hope to have" (TEST & MEASUREMENT WORLD, 4/1995; page 66).
STATISTICA for the Macintosh received the "four star rating". (Note: The version of STATISTICA for the Macintosh (the latest release 4.1) is a STATISTICA/w-compatible package that features most of the functionality of the Windows version.)
STATISTICA was elected to the prestigious "Top 100 Software Products" list (WINDOWS Magazine, 2/1995; the list includes software products in all categories).
In a review of STATISTICA, Dr. John L. Francis (a reviewer of statistics and graphics software) concluded:
"It is easily the best statistics program I have ever used (I have tried a lot) and the huge array of seamlessly integrated graphics options make it likely that you will not need separate software for scientific graphics. It seems expensive compared to some other products, but the sheer range of facilities, the quality of its graphics output and the fact that it could well replace two or three other programs, actually make it a good value. For this reviewer, STATISTICA/w is now the standard by which all other statistics programs should be compared. The manufacturers offer a money back guarantee; I doubt that they have ever had to make a refund." (page 146).