Statistical Software

Statistical Software Access From Home

Of all the stressors you’ve got right now, accessing your statistical software from home shouldn’t be one of them. (You know, the one on your office computer).

We’ve gotten some updates from some statistical software companies on how they’re making it easier to access the software you have a license to or to extend a free trial while you’re working from home.

Same Statistical Models, Different (and Confusing) Output Terms

by Jeff Meyer Leave a Comment

Learning how to analyze data can be frustrating at times. Why do statistical software companies have to add to our confusion?

I do not have a good answer to that question. What I will do is show examples. In upcoming blog posts, I will explain what each output means and how they are used in a model.

We will focus on ANOVA and linear regression models using SPSS and Stata software. As you will see, the biggest differences are not across software, but across procedures in the same software.

Member Training: How to Avoid Common Graphical Mistakes

by guest

Good graphs are extremely powerful tools for communicating quantitative information clearly and accurately.

Unfortunately, many of the graphs we see today confuse, mislead, or deceive the reader.

These poor graphs result from two key limitations. One is a graph designer who isn’t familiar with the principles of effective graphs. The other is software with a poor choice of default settings.

Member Training: What’s the Best Statistical Package for You?

by guest

Choosing statistical software is part of The Fundamentals of Statistical Skill and is necessary to learning a second software (something we recommend to anyone progressing from Stage 2 to Stage 3 and beyond).

You have many choices for software to analyze your data: R, SAS, SPSS, and Stata, among others. They are all quite good, but each has its own unique strengths and weaknesses.

The Advantages of RStudio

by Kim Love 1 Comment

There are multiple ways to interface with R. Some common interfaces are the basic R GUI, R Commander (the package “Rcmdr” that you use on top of the basic R GUI), and RStudio.

When I first started to learn to use R, I was bound and determined to use the basic R GUI.

As someone who was already used to programming in SAS, I wasn’t looking for a [Read more…] about The Advantages of RStudio

What Really Makes R So Hard to Learn?

by Kim Love Leave a Comment

If you are like I was for a long time, you have avoided learning R.

You’ve probably heard that there’s a steep learning curve, and that the available documentation is not necessarily user-friendly.

Frankly, both things are true, to some extent.

The best and worst thing about R is that it is open-source and there is no single [Read more…] about What Really Makes R So Hard to Learn?