Experimental Design for the Life Sciences, Second Edition

We would describe ourselves as biologists, rather than as statisticians. However, we do not deny having real passion for grappling with methodological issues. We really enjoy designing experiments, and pulling other people's experiments apart! Experimental design is an intellectual challenge, but it's also a challenge to the imagination. There are so many different approaches to addressing the same biological question: some will be flawed, some clumsy and inefficient, some effective and elegant. Our aim is to give pointers to finding this last type.

The first edition of this book emerged from our common frustration when reading student project reports. We commonly found that much hard work had been wasted because the experimental design was flawed, or that a clumsy design had forced the student to learn complex statistical analyses that could have been avoided by a more elegant experimental design.

Since writing the first edition, we've looked at a lot of textbooks and come to the understanding that what makes an effective textbook can be as much about presentation as content. Hence, the second edition has been re-designed for more effective communication of our ideas. We have also taken the opportunity to rewrite the text in the light of feedback on the first edition. There are some entirely new sections, reflecting our growing realisation of how wide a church the life-sciences are, and the diversity of different disciplines where experimental design is so important.

Graeme D. Ruxton & Nick Colegrave
April 2007

Read more about the book

Visit the Online Resource Centre