Rating: 
Summary: Review from an applied statistician
Review: As a statistician, this is the book I turn to when I have to analyze (real) multivariate, continuous data. I've never seen anything that equals it. And, it helps me discuss the technical issues more easily with clients because I find straightforward explanations that I would have a hard time coming up with on my own. I've been using the book since 1989 (2nd edition).
Rating:
Summary: Review from an applied statistician
Review: As a statistician, this is the book I turn to when I have to analyze (real) multivariate, continuous data. I've never seen anything that equals it. And, it helps me discuss the technical issues more easily with clients because I find straightforward explanations that I would have a hard time coming up with on my own. I've been using the book since 1989 (2nd edition).
Rating: 
Summary: Good How to Do Books
Review: I have used earlier versions of this book throughout my professional life. It is a handy quick reference for the more advanced practitioner who wants to explore techniques that they have not used before. Or, to refresh one's memory on techniques that have not been used for awhile. This book is also very useful for training junior practitioners in multivariate techniques. There is enough detail to satisfy those asking more detailed questions about techniques without overwelming those less inclined to pore over mathematical formula. Steps and tests are well laid out, with enough discussion so that the reader understands the value and importance of working through the standard routines and assumption checks. It also offers important pratical steps in how to design and run specific statistical procedures in the common statistical packages. Given the increasingly user-friendly statistical software on the market, this book offers a quick antidote for the rising number of button pushers, by showing budding statisticians the implications of using a technique ignorantly. This is done without making the technique inscrutable to the reader. While the new edition offers some additional information - the cost conscious buyer could easily find considerable value in older editions.
Rating:
Summary: A clear step by step intro. to multivariate stats
Review: I used this text for my multivariate stats class. T & F set up each chapter for describing an individual method and then gives several examples for each statistical method described. A floppy disc with the data sets used in the text is available with the text so one can use a computer, with the appropriate programs (SAS,SPSS,Lisrel), with the text as a guide to get to the correct answers. A step by step description and interpretation is given for each problem in case you get lost in the process. This helps immensely in understanding what's going on in the problem; as multivariate stats can get real confusing after awhile. The only complaint is that the previous edition's cover had the author in a pixelated belly dancing pose - I was hoping that the obscured cover would be in focus in this edition.
Rating:
Summary: One one of the best applied stat. books ever, excellent!
Review: Many statistical books, particularly multivariate ones,are, - let's face it- boring, heavy-going and ugly. Formulae are used as if to terrify and frighten, not to illustrate or show, and textual passages are all too often chock full of outright fibs such as 'it will be clear that', or, 'the reader will see that' or - a sure sign that something truly monstrous is to follow - 'it is obvious that'. Not so Tabachnick and Fidell's great book. Everything is clear and well set-out, with lots of real examples. Unlike many textbooks, it does not assume that you got your data out of a textbook, it shows how to analyze real data, how to check statistical assumptions and what to do about violations of those assumptions. Although some of the information on statistical packages may now be a little dated, the program inputs and outputs are supplied, as are written-up reports of the results, similar to how they would appear in a socio-behavioral journal. I've been using the various three editions of this truly wonderful book since 1985 and think it should be on the desk of every professional, aspiring or sometime data analyst or statistician!
Rating:
Summary: Best of class for its clarity and usefulness
Review: Tabachnick & Fidell have produced that rare thing, a technical tome that is helpful to junior and senior statisticians, and that is even fun, at times. I've used the 2nd edition of this text since it came out in 1989, during my student days and, now, professionally. It is the first place I turn when I need a clear review of data screening techniques, when I am debating the merits of one analytic approach over another, when I need to understand the fundamental formulas underlying a technique, and when I want to see how others have written up data from the technique I've selected. The structure of the book is particularly helpful in addressing these questions; there is a chapter on most of the common statistical techniques, and each chapter has sections describing the research questions for which the technique is appropriate, limitations of the approach, its fundamental equations, miscellaneous issues, a comparison of programs (which becomes dated too quickly, of course), and examples. All of these comments concern the 2nd edition, but I'll make the wild assumption that the authors have retained the structure and improved the content in the 3rd edition...and I'll buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Best of class for its clarity and usefulness
Review: Tabachnick & Fidell have produced that rare thing, a technical tome that is helpful to junior and senior statisticians, and that is even fun, at times. I've used the 2nd edition of this text since it came out in 1989, during my student days and, now, professionally. It is the first place I turn when I need a clear review of data screening techniques, when I am debating the merits of one analytic approach over another, when I need to understand the fundamental formulas underlying a technique, and when I want to see how others have written up data from the technique I've selected. The structure of the book is particularly helpful in addressing these questions; there is a chapter on most of the common statistical techniques, and each chapter has sections describing the research questions for which the technique is appropriate, limitations of the approach, its fundamental equations, miscellaneous issues, a comparison of programs (which becomes dated too quickly, of course), and examples. All of these comments concern the 2nd edition, but I'll make the wild assumption that the authors have retained the structure and improved the content in the 3rd edition...and I'll buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Best of class for its clarity and usefulness
Review: Tabachnick & Fidell have produced that rare thing, a technical tome that is helpful to junior and senior statisticians, and that is even fun, at times. I've used the 2nd edition of this text since it came out in 1989, during my student days and, now, professionally. It is the first place I turn when I need a clear review of data screening techniques, when I am debating the merits of one analytic approach over another, when I need to understand the fundamental formulas underlying a technique, and when I want to see how others have written up data from the technique I've selected. The structure of the book is particularly helpful in addressing these questions; there is a chapter on most of the common statistical techniques, and each chapter has sections describing the research questions for which the technique is appropriate, limitations of the approach, its fundamental equations, miscellaneous issues, a comparison of programs (which becomes dated too quickly, of course), and examples. All of these comments concern the 2nd edition, but I'll make the wild assumption that the authors have retained the structure and improved the content in the 3rd edition...and I'll buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: A poorly written book
Review: The best part of Tabachnick & Fidell's book is its index. It is a splendid sequence of promised statistical techniques that are not plenty fulfilled - at least in a didatical manner. The authors do not wrote a book suited for autodidactic learning. Their book is incomprehensible even to a person who has some introductory notices and a basic knowledge about multivariate statistics and want to continue learning. Their presentation is very, very truncated and faulty. They show lots of tables that they do not explain adequately - specially in the context of each statistical package they explore. Figures misteriously appear and vanish along the explanations. There are several typographical errors. That oeuvre do not look consistent, systematic and organized. It looks like a recorded prolix conversation among statisticians around some loose problems, without the care to make formal the informal flow of ideas . That is a poorly written book. I want my money back.
Rating:
Summary: A poorly written book
Review: The best part of Tabachnick & Fidell's book is its index. It is a splendid sequence of promised statistical techniques that are not plenty fulfilled - at least in a didatical manner. The authors do not wrote a book suited for autodidactic learning. Their book is incomprehensible even to a person who has some introductory notices and a basic knowledge about multivariate statistics and want to continue learning. Their presentation is very, very truncated and faulty. They show lots of tables that they do not explain adequately - specially in the context of each statistical package they explore. Figures misteriously appear and vanish along the explanations. There are several typographical errors. That oeuvre do not look consistent, systematic and organized. It looks like a recorded prolix conversation among statisticians around some loose problems, without the care to make formal the informal flow of ideas . That is a poorly written book. I want my money back.
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