# Representation of standard deviation in statistical range

I have computed the mean and standard deviation of a variable in a dataset, and I wish to represent these values in a report. Is the following the correct way to go about this?

$1.23 \pm 0.52 \sigma$,

where the mean is 1.23 and the standard deviation is 0.52.

Alternatively, would a standard error be a more appropriate thing to report? The results are classification accuracies and the time taken to compute them.

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As long as you make it clear what you are reporting, you're OK, but the usual method of reporting means and sds, as far as I've seen, is mean = 1.23 (sd = 0.52) or something similar. The $\pm$ sign used the way you are proposing risks confusing people into thinking it is a 95% CI, which it isn't. –  Peter Flom Oct 3 '12 at 12:35

It looks like you want to make a confidence interval. If that's not what you are trying to do, and you just want to report the standard deviation, than it is fine to write

$1.23 \pm 0.52$

with out the $\sigma$, as long as you make it clear that you are reporting the standard deviation and not a confidence interval, since many readers will assume this notation refers to a confidence interval. I've never seen the notation

$1.23 \pm 0.52\sigma$

used for this before, but it's possible it could be normal in your field. Unlikely though.

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