title: Central tendency and variability in biological systems.
abstract: In this article, the author reviews the manner in which researchers characterize data. Normality, standard deviation, mean, and other concepts related to parametric statistics are discussed in common language, with a minimum of jargon and with clinical examples.
authors.affiliation: Internal Medicine Residency Program, Department of Medicine, Stony Brook Medicine - Mather Hospital, Port Jefferson, NY, USA; LCardinal@matherhospital.org.
authors.forename: Lucien J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Cardinal
keywords: average; mean; median; mode; normal distribution; p-value; standard deviation; statistics