Recovering my breath in the gap between scoring my field trials and
harvesting them, I see that it was nearly two months ago that I asked
for advice on the difference between proportional odds and
proportional hazards, and for advice on reading matter - but it
doesn't seem like it!

Many thanks to the dozen or more Allstatters who answered my question.
Several people asked me if I would post a list of the suggestions I
was given for books describing PO/PH at a not-too-mathematical level.
Here it is, with apologies for taking so long. Most of this is
cut-and-pasted from various e-mails. A few remarks by me are in []
brackets.

1. Agresti A (1996) An Introduction to Categorical Data Analysis,
Wiley, which is an introductory version of his definitive 1990 book on
the subject. [I found this one so clearly written, at a genuinely
not-too-mathematical level, that I asked our library to order it. I'd
be happy to recommend this to biology Ph.D. students who've had a
reasonable training in data analysis. This had 3 recommendations.]

2. Survival Analysis:  A self-learning text by David Kleinbaum
published by Springer

3. Lindsey J K (1995) Introductory Statistics: a Modelling Approach,
Oxford Science Publications

4. D. Collett on 'Modelling survival data in medical research',
Chapman & Hall. [5 recommendations but seems a bit more mathematically
advanced than Agresti.]

5. At a very basic level try Myron Tribus book, "Rational Description,
Decisions and Design", Pergamon
1969. Ch. 1 and/or 2 has the part I think you can use.

6. The book by Marubini and Valsecchi is very good for clinical
survival analysis and includes
a section comparing proprtional odds vs hazards. The title is
something like "Analysis of survival data in clinical and
observational studies". [This looks more like one for the professional
- I couldn't really give this to the student who needed advice.]

7. A good reference for survival data in general is Cox and Oakes
(1984) : Analysis of Survival Data. [2 recommendations]

8. A textbook at a simpler level is AJ Dobson, "An introduction to
generalized linear models" [The index doesn't actually mention prop.
odds, but I agree that it's a fairly accessible book for the numerate
non-statistician]

Thanks to you all,

James Brown
_______________________________________________________

Dr J. K. M. Brown,
Cereals Research Department, John Innes Centre,
Colney Lane, Norwich, NR4 7UH, England
Phone: (+44)(0) 1603 452571. Fax: (+44)(0) 1603 502241.
E-mail: [log in to unmask]


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