Resolution of Students t-tests, ANOVA and analysis of variance components from intermediary data

Significance testing in comparisons is based on Student’s t-tests for pairs and analysis of variance (ANOVA) for simultaneous comparison of several procedures. Access to the average, standard deviation and number of observations is sufficient for calculating the significance of differences using the Student’s tests and the ANOVA. Once an ANOVA has been calculated, analysis of variance components from summary data becomes possible. Simple calculations based on summary data provide inference on significance testing. Examples are given from laboratory management and method comparisons. It is emphasized that the usual criteria of the underlying distribution of the raw data must be fulfilled