A Primer in Biological Data Analysis and Visualization Using R

R is the most widely used open-source statistical and programming environment for the analysis and visualization of biological data. Drawing on Gregg Hartvigsen’s extensive experience teaching biostatistics and modeling biological systems, this text is an engaging, practical, and lab-oriented introduction to R for students in the life sciences.

Underscoring the importance of R and RStudio in organizing, computing, and visualizing biological statistics and data, Hartvigsen guides readers through the processes of correctly entering and analyzing data and using R to visualize data using histograms, boxplots, barplots, scatterplots, and other common graph types. He covers testing data for normality, defining and identifying outliers, and working with non-normally distributed data. Students are introduced to common one- and two-sample tests as well as one- and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation, and linear and nonlinear regression analyses. This volume also includes a section on advanced procedures and a chapter outlining algorithms and the art of programming using R.

This second edition has been revised to be current with the versions of R software released since the book’s original publication. It features updated terminology, sources, and examples throughout.

Gregg Hartvigsen is a professor in the Department of Biology at the State University of New York at Geneseo.