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| View Larger Image | Cause and Correlation in Biology: A User's Guide to Path Analysis, Structural Equations and Causal Inference
by Bill Shipley
| | List Price: | $58.00 |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 468229 | | Studio: | Cambridge University Press | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 330 | | Publication Date: | September 02, 2002 | | Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Bill Shipley explores the logical and methodological relationships between correlation and causation. He presents a series of statistical methods that can test, and potentially discover, cause-effect relationships between variables in situations where it is not possible to conduct randomized, or experimentally controlled, studies. Many of these methods are quite new and most are generally unknown to biologists. Besides describing how to conduct these statistical tests, he also puts the methods into historical context and explains when they can and cannot justifiably be used to test causal claims. Hb ISBN (2000); 0-521-79153-7 |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 3 reviews)
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Very good introduction for practitioner. 
The book of Shipley provides an easy to read introduction in the field of structural equations and causal inference from experimental data. Most concepts are very well explained and examples are provided to see how to apply the concepts practically. Without any reservation I recommend it to none experts in this field who want to learn the intermediate basics directly applicable to own problems, e.g., for biologists.
However, for people trained in more theoretical fields, e.g., computer science, the thorough verbal explanations of mathematical formular (which are provided) is a little tiring after the first 100 pages, because the relative simple formulas can easily be interpreted. Instead, I wished the book would provide more alternative approaches in form of statistical test to test for causality. For this reason, I would recommend not to rewrite the complete book, but only include one additional chapter written in a more technical style. Then it would be close to perfect.
Finally, I want to remark, that the historical notes given throughout the book are not only very intesting but also inspiring, because they remind not to oversee mathematical developments in the none mathematical literature. SEM is certainly a good example.
To summarize, this is really a decent book!
January 03, 2006 | |
Great methods! 
This book is one of the best in the subject and its approaches to causality are very straight forward, and uses interesting algorithms. This book is very clear, and the authors takes you stsep by step in order to perform causal analysis. I used this books in a course, and I really enjoyed its simplicity.
June 09, 2004 | |
Path analysis and structural equation modeling
This is an excellent guidebook to path analysis and structural equations for biologists. The text is very readable (and even amusing in spots). There is interesting background on the development of path analysis and SEM, as well as thoughtful explanations of how these analyses can link hypotheses of causality to probability theory. New techniques for model testing are introduced that may add additional utility to the statistical method. I found it to be a thoughtful and thorough introduction to a potentially powerful new technique in biology and ecology.
October 17, 2001 | |
SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
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