Book excerpt: The SPSS Survival Manual throws a lifeline to students and researchers grappling with this powerful data analysis software. In her bestselling manual, Julie Pallant guides you through the entire research process, helping you choose the right data analysis technique for your project. From the formulation of research questions, to the design of the study and analysis of data, to reporting the results, Julie discusses basic through to advanced statistical techniques. She outlines each technique clearly, providing step by step procedures for performing your analysis, a detailed guide to interpreting data output and examples of how to present your results in a report. For both beginners and experienced users in psychology, sociology, health sciences, medicine, education, business and related disciplines, the SPSS Survival Manual is an essential text. Illustrated with screen grabs, examples of output and tips, it is supported by a website with sample data and guidelines on report writing. This seventh edition is fully revised and updated to accommodate changes to IBM SPSS Statistics procedures, screens and output. 'An excellent introduction to using SPSS for data analysis. It provides a self-contained resource itself, with more than simply (detailed and clear) step-by-step descriptions of statistical procedures in SPSS. There is also a wealth of tips and advice, and for each statistical technique a brief, but consistently reliable, explanation is provided.' - Associate Professor George Dunbar, University of Warwick 'This book is recommended as ESSENTIAL to all students completing research projects - minor and major.' - Dr John Roodenburg, Monash University A website with support materials for students and lecturers is available at www.spss.allenandunwin.com