Data analysis
Part of a dataset will always consist of noise, major or minor depending on the study, the samples, and the analytical technique. The noise includes biological variation, chemical noise, and technical noise from the sample preparation and the instrumental analysis. The aim of a data analysis is to extract the information out of a data set and to get knowledge about the noise to be able to draw significant conclusions. The data analysis of analytical signals includes data pre-processing including noise reduction, followed by extraction of significant differences/trends in the data, showing us occurrences and trends that can be chemically and biologically explained and understood. A lot of data pre-processing methods and data analysis tools are available, both in commercial software, including instrumental software, but also from this field of research. The code for many methods are freely available from the authors of research articles and sometimes on the web.
