Keywords

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is a collection of statistical models and their associated estimation procedures (such as the "variation" among and between groups) used to analyze the differences among group means in a sample.  In the ANOVA setting, the observed variance in a particular variable is partitioned into components attributable to different sources of variation.  In its simplest form, ANOVA provides a statistical test of whether the population means of several groups are equal, and therefore generalizes the t-test to more than two groups.  ANOVA is useful for comparing (testing) three or more group means for statistical significance.

An "unbalanced" ANOVA allows for unequal numbers of observations for each group.

Keywords relating to statistical analysis – generally applied to publications describing the application of specialised statistical methodologies to the interpretation of geochemical data.