Table of Contents

Preface

1 Doing Science

Where do questions come from?

1.1 Science as asking questions

1.2 Basic considerations

1.3 The skill of asking questions

1.4 Where do questions come from?

1.5 What is this book about

References

2 Asking questions

The art of framing hypotheses and predictions

2.1 Observation

2.2 Exploratory analysis

2.3 Forming hypotheses

2.4 Summary

References

3 Answering questions

What do the results say?

3.1 Confirmatory analysis

3.2 What is statistical significance

3.3 Significance tests

3.4 Testing hypotheses

3.5 Testing predictions

3.6 Refining hypotheses and predictions

3.7 Summary

References

4 Presenting information

How to communicate outcomes and conclusions

4.1 Presenting figures and tables

4.2 Presenting results in the text

4.3 Writing reports

4.4 Writing for a more general readership

4.5 Presenting in person: spoken papers and poster presentations

4.6 Plagiarism

4.7 Summary

References

Test finder and help guide

Some self-test questions

Appendix I: Table of confidence limits to the median

Appendix II: How to calculate some simple significance tests

Appendix III: Significance tables

Appendix IV: The common codes for the important graphical parameters of R

Answers to self-test questions

Index

Quick test finders