The first edition of this book has established itself as one of the
leading references on generalized additive models (GAMs), and the only
book on the topic to be introductory in nature with a wealth of
practical examples and software implementation. It is self-contained,
providing the necessary background in linear models, linear mixed
models, and generalized linear models (GLMs), before presenting a
balanced treatment of the theory and applications of GAMs and related
models.
The author bases his approach on a framework of penalized regression
splines, and while firmly focused on the practical aspects of GAMs,
discussions include fairly full explanations of the theory underlying
the methods. Use of R software helps explain the theory and illustrates
the practical application of the methodology. Each chapter contains an
extensive set of exercises, with solutions in an appendix or in the
book's R data package gamair, to enable use as a course text or for
self-study.