Book excerpt: Join the revolution ignited by the ground-breaking R system! Starting with an introduction to R, covering standard regression methods, then presenting more advanced topics, this book guides users through the practical and powerful tools that the R system provides. The emphasis is on hands-on analysis, graphical display and interpretation of data. The many worked examples, taken from real-world research, are accompanied by commentary on what is done and why. A website provides computer code and data sets, allowing readers to reproduce all analyses. Updates and solutions to selected exercises are also available. Assuming only basic statistical knowledge, the book is ideal for research scientists, final-year undergraduate or graduate level students of applied statistics, and practising statisticians. It is both for learning and for reference. This revised edition reflects changes in R since 2003 and has new material on survival analysis, random coefficient models, and the handling of high-dimensional data.