Rutgers University Libraries Data Services Workshop Series (New Brunswick)

January 2015

This Spring, Ryan Womack, Data Librarian, will give a series of workshops on statistical software, data visualization, and data management, as part of the Rutgers University Libraries Data Services.  To go directly to the registration page, click here.  A detailed calendar and descriptions of each workshop are below.

Logistics

All workshops for Spring 2015 will be held in the Conference Room on the 1st floor of the Library of Science and Medicine (Busch Campus).  Workshops are held on Wednesday afternoons from 3:20 to 4:40 pm or Thursday afternoons from 1:40 to 3:00 pm.  The Wednesday series covers many aspects of the R open source statistical software environment.  The early Thursday sessions are introductions to commerical statisical software  (SPSS, Stata, SAS).  Later in the semester, the Thursday sessions will cover several aspects of research data management.

You are encouraged to bring your own laptop for these sessions.  Laptops are also available for borrowing during the workshops.  Room capacity is approximately 25.  SPSS, Stata, and SAS sessions will use the apps.rutgers.edu remote system.

If you can’t make the workshops, or would like a preview or refresher, screencast versions of many of the presentations are already available at http://libguides.rutgers.edu/data.  Additional screencasts are continually being added to this series.

Calendar of workshops

	Wednesday		Thursday
Jan 28	Intro to R, part I, Statistical Functions		Intro to SPSS	Jan 29
Feb 4	Intro to R, part II, Graphics		Intro to Stata	Feb 5
Feb 11	Intro to R, part III, Data Manipulation		Intro to SAS	Feb 12
Feb 18	Data Visualization, part I, Principles & Use in lattice and ggplot2
Feb 25	Data Visualization, part II, Miscellany of Methods		Best Practices for Managing your Research Data	Feb 26
March 4	Data Visualization, part III, 3-D, Interactive and Big Data		Data Management Plans, Data Sharing and Archiving	March 5
March 11	Survival Analysis in R		Reproducible Research	March 12
March 25	Time Series in R

 Register for the workshops here

Description of Workshops:

§ Introduction to R (Jan 28, Feb 4, and Feb 11) – This 3-part series provides an orientation to the R programming environment.  R is freely available, open source statistical software that has been widely adopted in the research community.  Due to its open nature, thousands of additional packages have been created by contributors to implement the latest statistical techniques, making R a very powerful tool.  No prior knowledge is assumed. The three parts cover:

(Jan 28) Part I – Statistical Techniques: getting around in R, descriptive statistics, regression, significance tests, working with packages

(Feb 4) Part II – Graphics:  comparison of graphing techniques in base R, lattice, and ggplot2 packages

(Feb 11) Part III – Data Manipulation:  data import and transformation, additional methods for working with large data sets

Additional R resources, including handouts, scripts, and screencast versions of the workshops, can be found here: http://libguides.rutgers.edu/data_R

R is freely downloadable from http://r-project.org

§ Introduction to SPSS (Jan 29) provides a single session overview of navigating the basics of SPSS.  SPSS is widely used statistical software with strengths in survey analysis and other social science disciplines.  If you are already using SPSS with some degree of success, this session may be too basic for you.

Copies of the workshop materials, a screencast, and additional SPSS resources can be found here: http://libguides.rutgers.edu/content.php?pid=115296&sid=1208425

SPSS is made available by OIRT at a discounted academic rate, currently $100/academic year.  Find it at software.rutgers.edu.  SPSS is also available in campus computer labs and via the Apps server (see below).

§ Introduction to Stata (Feb 5) provides a single session overview of navigating the basics of Stata.  Stata is flexible and allows relatively easy access to programming features.  It is popular in economics among other areas. If you are already using Stata with some degree of success, this session may be too basic for you.

Copies of the workshop materials, a screencast, and additional Stata resources can be found here: http://libguides.rutgers.edu/content.php?pid=115296&sid=1208427

Stata is made available by OIRT via campus license with no additional charge to install for Rutgers users.  Find it at software.rutgers.edu.

§ Introduction to SAS (Feb 12) provides a single session overview of navigating the basics of SAS.  SAS is a powerful and long-standing system that handles large data sets well, and is popular in the pharmaceutical industry, among other applications. If you are already using SAS with some degree of success, this session may be too basic for you.

Copies of the workshop materials, a screencast, and additional SAS resources can be found here: http://libguides.rutgers.edu/content.php?pid=115296&sid=1208423

SAS is made available by OIRT at a discounted academic rate, currently $100/academic year.  Find it at software.rutgers.edu.  SAS is also available in campus computer labs, online via the SAS University Edition cloud service, and via the Apps server (see below).
 

Note: Accessing software via apps.rutgers.edu

SPSS, SAS, Stata, and R are available for remote access on apps.rutgers.edu.  apps.rutgers.edu does not require any software installation, but you must activate the service first at netid.rutgers.edu.

On Wednesdays, the R series will continue, including:

§ Data Visualization in R  in 3 parts (basics, more methods, interactive & big data)

§ Time Series in R 

§ Survival Analysis in R 

On Thursdays, other topics in Data Management will be addressed, including:

§ Data Management Best Practices 

§ Data Management Plans, Data Sharing and Archiving

§ Reproducible Research

Additional data management resources can be found here: http://libguides.rutgers.edu/datamanagement

Logistics, again

To repeat, All workshops for Spring 2015 will be held in the Conference Room on the 1st floor of the Library of Science and Medicine (Busch Campus) on Wednesday afternoons (starting at 3:20) and Thursday afternoons (starting at 1:40).  Bring your own laptop if you can, although there will be laptops available to borrow.

 Register for the workshops here