ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a broad overview of the design and statistical analysis of experiments. Carefully establish the experimental unit and identify the dependant variables and independent variables that will be incorporated into the study design. A critical step in designing any experiment is to identify correctly the subject of the experiment, known as the experimental unit. The power of an experiment is its ability to detect the effect of a treatment, assuming it has an effect. The choice of species, sex, strain/genotype, age/weight are often determined by the nature of the experiment. Strictly, the results of an experiment only apply to the particular circumstances of that individual experiment. A number of formal experimental designs can be used to take account of the characteristics of the animals and the aims of the experiment. A randomised block design is used to split the experiment up into a number of “mini-experiments”.
