SPSS is a statistics package. Originally released in 1968, it is currently owned by IBM.
SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) is a proprietary cross-platform general-purpose statistical software package. Originally released in 1968, it is currently owned by IBM. SPSS's homepage
Versions 17 and 18 of SPSS were renamed with the acronym PASW (for Predictive Analytics SoftWare), but with version 19 it has been renamed to SPSS (see Wikipedia for a history of the name changes). One unique aspect of SPSS software compared to other popular propriety software packages (such as Stata or SAS) is the built in functionality to call Python or R commands within syntax. Otherwise it is largely comparable to other general proprietary and freeware packages (such as R), although it differs in some advanced statistical capabilities and aspects of data manipulation.
Suggested readings on using SPSS and learning the command syntax are two online PDF's.
Other useful print versions are
- An Intermediate Guide to SPSS Programming: Using Syntax for Data Management by Sarah Boslaugh (For Data Management)
- Discovering statistics using SPSS by Andy Field (For Statistical Analysis)
Other forums entirely devoted to the software are (and suggested material to search when encountering a problem with SPSS are):
Other suggested webpages are
- UCLA's Academic Technology Services SPSS Resources webpage
- Raynald's SPSS tools
- Bruce Weaver's SPSS page
- Jeromy Anglim's blog
PSPP is a free-ware, open source alternative largely mimicking the look and functionality of SPSS. You can also use SPSS with other software like R.
