Analysing evidence is crucial for successfully navigating any complex or controversial topic. This section covers key topics in critically evaluating evidence, including an introduction to causation, inductive inference, an overview of some basic principles of statistics, and a discussion of some problems and limitations of statistical analysis that are important to be on the lookout for.
Causation and Evidence
Necessary and sufficient conditions
Principles of Statistics
Problems with Statistical Analyses
Academic Literature
Additional Resources
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on evidence: an excellent introduction to the philosophical issues of what evidence is and how it is used
Types of scientific evidence: simple discussion and graphic covering the different types of scientific evidence
Scientific ‘proof’, scientific evidence, and the scientific method: great introductory article from TalkOrigins in the context of analysing evolution
Making sense of statistics: an excellent resource explaining in an accessible manner how to critically interpret statistical evidence, from Sense about Science
Glossary of statistics: useful definitions of key words and concepts in statistics
Applied Statistics lecture notes: a set of clear and concise lecture notes for a course on applied statistics
Statistical reasoning: an introduction to some key concepts and approaches in statistical reasoning
Wikipedia page on misuse of statistics: a great introduction to the many potential pitfalls of statistical analyses
Statistics for the terrified glossary: this site provides a simple, non-mathematical introduction to many key concepts in statistics
Research methods knowledge base: a guide to many topics in research methods
James Fodor 