Preface

This book is aimed at the data scientist with some familiarity with the R programming language, and with some prior (perhaps spotty or ephemeral) exposure to statistics. Both of us came to the world of data science from the world of statistics, so we have some appreciation of the contribution that statistics can make to the art of data science. At the same time, we are well aware of the limitations of traditional statistics instruction: statistics as a discipline is a century and a half old, and most statistics textbooks and courses are laden with the momentum and inertia of an ocean liner.

Two goals underlie this book:

  • To lay out, in digestible, navigable, and easily referenced form, key concepts from statistics that are relevant to data science.

  • To explain which concepts are important and useful from a data science perspective, which are less so, and why.

Conventions Used in This Book

The following typographical conventions are used in this book:

Italic

Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, and file extensions.

Constant width

Used for program listings, as well as within paragraphs to refer to program elements such as variable or function names, databases, data types, environment variables, statements, and keywords.

Constant width bold

Shows commands or other text that should be typed literally by the user.

Tip

This element signifies a tip or suggestion.

Note

This element signifies a general note.

Warning

This element indicates a warning or caution.

Using Code Examples

Supplemental material (code examples, exercises, etc.) is available for download at https://github.com/andrewgbruce/statistics-for-data-scientists.

This book is here to help you get your job done. In general, if example code is offered with this book, you may use it in your programs and documentation. You do not need to contact us for permission unless you’re reproducing a significant portion of the code. For example, writing a program that uses several chunks of code from this book does not require permission. Selling or distributing a CD-ROM of examples from O’Reilly books does require permission. Answering a question by citing this book and quoting example code does not require permission. Incorporating a significant amount of example code from this book into your product’s documentation does require permission.

We appreciate, but do not require, attribution. An attribution usually includes the title, author, publisher, and ISBN. For example: “Practical Statistics for Data Scientists by Peter Bruce and Andrew Bruce (O’Reilly). Copyright 2017 Peter Bruce and Andrew Bruce, 978-1-491-95296-2.”

If you feel your use of code examples falls outside fair use or the permission given above, feel free to contact us at .

Safari® Books Online

Note

Safari Books Online is an on-demand digital library that delivers expert content in both book and video form from the world’s leading authors in technology and business.

Technology professionals, software developers, web designers, and business and creative professionals use Safari Books Online as their primary resource for research, problem solving, learning, and certification training.

Safari Books Online offers a range of plans and pricing for enterprise, government, education, and individuals.

Members have access to thousands of books, training videos, and prepublication manuscripts in one fully searchable database from publishers like O’Reilly Media, Prentice Hall Professional, Addison-Wesley Professional, Microsoft Press, Sams, Que, Peachpit Press, Focal Press, Cisco Press, John Wiley & Sons, Syngress, Morgan Kaufmann, IBM Redbooks, Packt, Adobe Press, FT Press, Apress, Manning, New Riders, McGraw-Hill, Jones & Bartlett, Course Technology, and hundreds more. For more information about Safari Books Online, please visit us online.

How to Contact Us

Please address comments and questions concerning this book to the publisher:

  • O’Reilly Media, Inc.
  • 1005 Gravenstein Highway North
  • Sebastopol, CA 95472
  • 800-998-9938 (in the United States or Canada)
  • 707-829-0515 (international or local)
  • 707-829-0104 (fax)

We have a web page for this book, where we list errata, examples, and any additional information. You can access this page at http://bit.ly/practicalStats_for_DataScientists.

To comment or ask technical questions about this book, send email to .

For more information about our books, courses, conferences, and news, see our website at http://www.oreilly.com.

Find us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/oreilly

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/oreillymedia

Watch us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/oreillymedia

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the many people who helped make this book a reality.

Gerhard Pilcher, CEO of the data mining firm Elder Research, saw early drafts of the book and gave us detailed and helpful corrections and comments. Likewise, Anya McGuirk and Wei Xiao, statisticians at SAS, and Jay Hilfiger, fellow O’Reilly author, provided helpful feedback on initial drafts of the book.

At O’Reilly, Shannon Cutt has shepherded us through the publication process with good cheer and the right amount of prodding, while Kristen Brown smoothly took our book through the production phase. Rachel Monaghan and Eliahu Sussman corrected and improved our writing with care and patience, while Ellen Troutman-Zaig prepared the index. We also thank Marie Beaugureau, who initiated our project at O’Reilly, as well as Ben Bengfort, O’Reilly author and statistics.com instructor, who introduced us to O’Reilly.

We, and this book, have also benefited from the many conversations Peter has had over the years with Galit Shmueli, coauthor on other book projects.

Finally, we would like to especially thank Elizabeth Bruce and Deborah Donnell, whose patience and support made this endeavor possible.

Get Practical Statistics for Data Scientists now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial