6 - Analysis using InVivoStat

Summary

InVivoStat is a free-to-use statistical software package developed specifically for animal researchers. It consists of a series of modules, which produce graphical plots, summary statistics and statistical analyses. In this chapter we shall discuss how to use InVivoStat, describe the individual modules and consider some of the technical details of the analyses.

Getting started

InVivoStat can be downloaded from the website: www.invivostat.co.uk. Once installed it can be accessed via the Windows start menu.

Data import

Data can be imported into InVivoStat from Excel (using the xls or xlsx file formats) or from a text editor using the csv (comma delimited) format. It is recommended that the final dataset is first created in Excel, including all data manipulations, before importing into InVivoStat. If the Excel file contains multiple worksheets, then the user is prompted to select one of the worksheets to import into InVivoStat. Multiple datasets can be opened within InVivoStat but they must be imported individually.

Datasets cannot contain commas in either the variable names or within the body of the data. Variable names cannot also contain the symbols: ~ (tilde), + (plus) or * (asterisk), as these characters are used internally within InVivoStat. Users will not be able to import datasets that include these characters.