Intermediate-level book for studying statistics?

Question

I have took several beginner courses in statistics at my local university. I have also read two introductory books. I would now like to deepen my knowledge on certain areas, such as

• bivariate and multivariate normal distributions
• characteristic functions
• meta-analysis
• inter-rater reliability
• causal inference
• power analysis
• general linear models

I realize these represent a large number of different topics. However, I would still like to ask is there any book that would cover more than one of the topics at the same time? I would be looking at some kind of intermediate-level text.

Answer 1

Your question seems to cover many statistics areas.

• bivariate and multivariate normal distributions : If you are interested in mathematical aspect of these distributions, you can find that in almost all books in mathematical statistics. I am not sure about your background in statistics, but maybe some tutorials or introductory books are enough in many cases. If you are just interested in distributions and their application, this book Handbook of Statistical Distributions with Applications is a nice book.

• characteristic functions : Maybe one of the most exciting aspects of CF is in deonvolutions that have many applications in signal processing, time series, regression and so on. For this area I advice you to read some books in "Measurement Error in Nonlinear Models". I personally advice you to go to this area after having enough background in statistics. The best book I can introduce you in deconvolution and corresponding method is Local polynomial modelling and application

• inter-rater reliability : I am not quite sure about this area but a quick search on Google reveals a handbook on 4 edition Handbook of Inter-Rater Reliability, 4th Edition

• causal inference : Casual inference in statistics include too many topics that is nearly impossible to provide a complete list of references here. But if you are interested in some mathematical part of inferential statistics I can introduce you three brilliant books, Statistical inference, Theory of point estimation and Testing statistical hypothesis or maybe some easy books that can utilize your hands in a software like Statistical analysis with R

• power analysis : Power analysis is a main part of experimental design. Then you can find a wide range of references in market. As a result, I refer you to this Wikipedia page and references within or my favourite reference Applied Linear Statistical Models for experimental design methods and finally a comprehensive book in statistics like Methods and Applications : a Comprehensive Reference for Science, Industry, and Data Mining

• general linear models: I advice you last two references in previous section for this are.

In this answer I tried to collect a handful of references and of course there are tons of other references that can be suggested. Hope they are helpful.