CORA - A knowledge-based system for the analysis of case-control studies

Carrying out a statistical analysis, the researcher is concerned with the p roblem of choosing an appropriate statistical technique from a large number of competing methods. Most common statistical software offer different met hods for analysing the data without giving any support regarding the adequa cy of a method for a particular data set. This paper outlines the main feat ures of the computer system CORA which provides a statistical analysis of s tratified contingency tables and additionally supports the researcher at th e different steps of this analysis. Here, the support given by the system c onsists of two different aspects. On the one hand, the help system of CORA contains general information on the implemented statistical methods which c an be obtained on request. On the other hand, an advice tool recommends an adequate statistical method which depends on the actual empirical case-cont rol data to be analysed. To build up the advice tool, a set of rules being discovered by machine learning from simulation studies is integrated into t he system CORA. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.