I'm sorry if i posted this in a wrong thread...i have a problem..

my thesis was a mix of quantitative and qualitative data and I have 2 internal and 2 external advisors . My external advisors are more into quantitative and qualitative data and my internal advisors are more towards technical stuff (computer stuff).

Hence, when I submit my draft on the quantitatve analysis, i did have some report on t-test, anova, etc. What my internal advisor asked me to do is to give a reference on what a t test , anoava, etc means. Reason being? She said she has not even heard about it and it would help other people to understand what t-tes anova blabla is. The thing is, I never actually came across anyone who explain or put a reference on the meaning of the statistical analysis...most of the paper would just say: e.g: t-test found there is no significant differemce balblablablabla instead of t-test (ref to any stat books) found there....

i dont know what to, can anyone give me some advice?

thanks!

======= Date Modified 15 Feb 2012 10:06:45 =======
I tend towards feelings of immense gratitude to people who put in refs that explain their statistics rather than just assuming that everyone understands them. Specifically in your case I think you should follow the internal's advice - if your advisor isn't familiar with the stats you are using you might get an examiner who's not familiar with them either and also thinks that a reference is needed, I think at least it does no harm to put in a reference.

ETA. Can you ref a source which both explains the technique and shows its application in your field - that might be used as justification if your more stats-minded examiners don't like the inclusion of a reference.

My sup asked me to do this for some of my more complicated stuff. Often she asked me to take it out again after she had understood it though!

If it were me, I'd just add a clarifying sentence e.g. "In order to make a statistical comparison between the mean scores of each group, a t-test was used (Reference from a general stats textbook)". That way you've explained what it does and provided a reference.