Genstat is a powerful statistical software for all fields of research. There are flexible choices for design of experiment. Genstat is ready to use software with friendly user interface, the beginner could use standard and advance statistics in Genstat like the experts.

 

          Genstat is a general statistics software for education and research. It is one of the earliest statistical systems and is one of the few to be developed outside North America. It has been developed since 1960 at Rothamsted Experimental Station for the experimental design and data analysis in agriculture. It is a very flexible and easy-to-use software that could be applied to any field of researches. It is built with the friendly user interface which contains of comprehensive menus to guide non-technical users to use statistics correctly and effectively. It also has a powerful programming language that can be used to develop new techniques and complicate experiments. Genstat provides full complementation of statistical procedures, data management, and graphical capabilities. It has powerful spreadsheet facilities for data storage and manipulation and an attractive graphics viewer that allows users to edit and interact with their plots.

          Genstat provides a variety of descriptive statistics, tools for experimental design, generalized linear mixed models (GLMM),

picture1regression (linear, nonlinear and generalized linear), multivariate analyses, time series, statistical process control methods, survival analysis, spatial analysis and resampling methods. The strengths of Genstat® are ANOVA algorithm which analyses balanced multi-level data, the efficient REML algorithm which analyses multi-level data, allowing for correlated errors at any level of the data and good facilities for GLMs.

 

Genstat Feature

  • Manage data on Genstat’s own spreadsheet
  • Compatible with Excel spreadsheet (import/export)
  • Illustrate data with graphics such as histograms, boxplots, scatter plots, line graphs, trellis plots, contour and 3-dimensional surface plots;
  • Summarize and compare data with tabular reports, fitted distributions, and standard tests, such as t-tests, tests and various non parametric tests;
  • Transform data using a general calculation facility with a wide range of mathematical and statistical functions;
  • Model relationships between variables by linear or nonlinear regression, generalized linear models, generalized additive models, generalized linear mixed models or hierarchical generalized linear models;
  • Analyze experiments, ranging from one-way analysis of variance to complex designs with several sources of error variation, using a balanced-ANOVA or a REML approach (including the modelling of correlation structures);
  • Design investigations deciding on the sample size, or numbers of replicates, required to detect the anticipated treatment effects;
  • Identify patterns in data by means of multivariate techniques such as canonical variates analysis, principal components analysis, principal coordinates analysis, correspondence analysis, partial least squares, classification trees and cluster analysis;
  • Analyze results from stratified or from unstructured surveys;
  • Plot control charts, print Pareto tables and calculate capability statistics;
  • Analyze time series, using Box-Jenkins models or spectral analysis;
  • Analyze repeated measurements, by analysis of variance, or using ante dependence structure, or by modelling the correlation over time;
  • Analyze spatial patterns, using Kriging or spatial point processes. These techniques are useful in agriculture, ecology, genetics, medical research, and other areas of biology, as well as in industrial research and quality control, and economic and social surveys; in fact in any field of research, business, government or education where statistics are used.

 

Genstat Versions

Latest Genstat version 18

System requirements

  • Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 64
  • 64 MB RAM
  • 230 MB hard disk space for full installation

Support operating system

  • Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7 and later

Genstat development began at Rothamsted when John Nelder was appointed as the Head of Statistics at Rothamsted, in 1968. Roger Payne took over its leadership in 1985, when John Nelder retired from Rothamsted, and continues in that role as VSNi’s Chief Science and Technology Officer. Genstat has benefited from the close relationship between statistical computing and statistical research and consulting at Rothamsted, and this relationship continues through the continuing links between VSNi and Rothamsted, where several of our technical staff have visiting positions. Other statistical theory and methods in Genstat that were originally developed by Rothamsted statisticians include generalized linear models (John Nelder), general balance (John Nelder originally, with further developments by Roger Payne), canonical variates analysis (John Gower) and REML analysis of mixed models (Robin Thompson). Genstat thus has a long history as the means of making available new statistical research that has been developed to address real biological research issues. We believe that this has given us unique insights into the needs of statisticians and scientists in biological research. The Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG) is one of the pioneers of mathematical, statistical, data mining and visualization software. The services offered by NAG have been used by academic, government and industrial institutions globally for over 30 years. In 1971 NAG developed the first mathematical software library, which has evolved over the years and become the largest commercially available library of mathematical and statistical algorithms. We benefit from the expertise of our shareholders through their representatives on the VSNi Board. They augment our scientific expertise and provide valuable advice and direction on our activities.

 

Genstat Quality Assurance

If you prefer you can read this as a pdf. At VSN International, we recognize that your analyses depend on the accuracy and validity of our software. We therefore take great care to check that the results that we produce are reliable and correct. This document summarizes some of the methods that we use to achieve this.

 

Accuracy

We use algorithms that are designed to give numerical accuracy and stability. These are mainly produced in-house by our team of well-trained developers. We also make use of the renowned and carefully-validated algorithms produced by the Numerical Algorithms Group (one of our shareholders).

 

Correctness

We check the Genstat directives using an extensive suite of test programs whose results have been checked by

  • reproducing analyses and comparing the results for representative data sets using alternative methods e.g. anova and regression, reml and anova, etc.
  • by explicit calculation, using Genstat’s ability to perform general matrix and vector calculations
  • by hand calculation where feasible
  • comparing our results with those in published books and refereed journal papers
  • by comparing with the results from other software systems

Procedures in the Genstat Procedure Library are assessed by an Editorial Board, who use similar methods to check that accepted procedures are useful, reliable and accompanied by clear documentation.

 

Quality

  • Our technical staff have considerable experience of software development, dating back to the early 1970’s.
  • They all have degree and post-graduate qualifications in statistics or computing.
  • They enjoy close collaborative links with research statisticians at organizations including Rothamsted Research and New South Wales Department of Primary Industry.
  • They also operate as members of the research community, attending and presenting papers at scientific meetings and conferences; this helps to ensure that they are up-to-date with current statistical research.
  • All our staff subscribe to the concept of self-development to enhance our skills to the benefit of VSNi’s activities, and VSNi has recognized the importance of this activity by becoming certified under the UK Government’s Investors in People scheme.

 

Reliability

  • The underlying material for our software (source code, test suites, documentation etc) is held in a secure archive that uses the source-control system Subversion. This keeps a formal record of every change, with explanatory documentation to explain why it was made, and allows us to step back accurately and reliably to earlier versions to facilitate the diagnosis and correction of errors.
  • To guard against mistakes, our extensive suite of test programs is run after every substantive change.
  • Each new release undergoes a period of at least 2 months of beta-testing by committed users to check its reliability under “field conditions”. A formal reporting process is followed to ensure that errors are logged and corrected.
  • Flaws and errors subsequently reported in the full release are also logged in a formal system, and patches and service packs are produced in a timely way to correct them.
  • We should also place on record the fact that many of the core Genstat algorithms have been in intensive use for many years by a wide population of very disparate users. You can therefore base your confidence in Genstat, not only on our efforts but also on the accumulated efforts of your peers.

 

Support

We recognize the crucial safety-net that timely, well-informed and helpful support can provide for our supported users.

  • We handle all our support calls in-house: you will not be sent ill-informed replies from an off-shore call center.
  • We enter support enquiries into a monitoring system to ensure that they do not become lost or forgotten.
  • Our target, achieved with over 99% success, is to provide a reply within one working day.
  • Our technical staff are fully involved in support, so you are guaranteed a well-informed answer. Their involvement also ensures that flaws that are reported through support receive appropriate priority in our development. Where a flaw can be corrected quickly, a software patch will be formed. Alternatively, we endeavour to provide a work-around.
  • We are happy to provide statistical advice and assistance as well as computing support. If your request is too complicated for a quick response, we will endeavour to offer you an acceptable consulting contract.
  • In addition to our formal support service we also maintain web-based discussion listsfor Genstat and ASreml on the VSNi website. Although, these are intended mainly to provide a forum for users’ views and self-help, we do monitor the discussions so that we can answer any more-challenging queries.

 

Good statistical practice

Our technical development team includes statisticians with considerable experience of statistical consulting and teaching. We are thus very aware of the issues that can arise when statistical software is used by people with limited statistical experience or training. The menus, interfaced and algorithms in Genstat are designed to help these users to use statistics effectively and correctly. For example

  • the menus for more sophisticated methods, such as generalized linear models, are designed to build naturally on more familiar methods, such as linear regression, to ease your transition into more advanced techniques
  • we make a clear distinction between categorical variables (i.e. factors) and continuous numerical variables (variates) to help you to avoid using these in inappropriate ways
  • the output window supports context-sensitive help to explain unfamiliar terms
  • we use general algorithms, for example in our facilities in Genstat for anova, regression and reml, to avoid artificial constraints on the size of complexity of your analyses
  • Genstat has a simple but powerful command language that allows you to access its full range of methods
  • we have clear documentation and on-line help, and an extensive set of examples of the commands that are accessible through a specially designed menu
  • the Genstat command language can be used as a general-purpose programming language so that you can develop or modify methods to match your own requirements
  • development of new or customized methods is facilitated by the fact that the Genstat Procedure Library is open-source, with a menu to access the source code of any of the Library procedures
  • We are not willing to provide questionable types of analysis even though some of these may have achieved misguided popularity elsewhere!

 

The future

We recognize the importance of keeping you up-to-date with new developments in statistics and computing. We thus have a regular schedule of new releases. Genstat itself has for many years followed an annual release schedule. Its new Editions generally include not only new statistical methodology but also enhanced interfaces, new documentation and updates to cater for any recent new releases of MS Windows.