Statistical Software Programs

Several students have indicated interest in acquiring a Statistical Computing Program for their personal computers. Below please find resources that may be helpful to you:

1. BU has a site license for several statistical software packages, the one they seem to recommend the most is JMP. JMP is free for staff and students, and seems to do everything Prism does, though it may not be as easy to use. Follow the link below for more information on all of the Statistical Programs BU offers:

http://www.bu.edu/tech/support/desktop/distribution/statistics/

2. Another alternative to GraphPad Prism is Microsoft Excel, which can be programmed to compute statistics in a number of ways. There is also a free online version of GraphPad for quick calculations.

3. Kaleidagraph is available for purchase at $140 per copy. Please note that Prism and Kaleidagraph are graphing (and curve-fitting) programs, not general purpose graphics programs.

4. The Boston University Office of Research Compliance has an online resource for calculating sample sizes.  This is a very useful resource for those individuals who are involved in writing IACUC approved animal research protocols.

5. The R Project for Statistical Computing is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. It compiles and runs on a wide variety of UNIX platforms, Windows and MacOS.

6. SPSS 20 Statistics for Students:  Undergraduate and graduate students may access SPSS Statistics in individual department labs as well as via the IS&T thin-client lab located in BU Common@Mugar at 771 Commonwealth Avenue. View a current list of locations.

Questions regarding the JMP or other statistical software programs should be directed to Dr. Scott Downing, Bioinformatics Research Scientist, at sdowning@bu.edu.