• learning curve and utility of various free statistics programs

    From Ezra Boyd@21:1/5 to All on Thu Jan 28 07:17:17 2016
    Here are a few types from my experience:

    - Most programs these days can read .xls, xlsx. In base R, it's not straightforward, but there are a few packages (both command line & gui) to simplify it. On the other hand, it's usually just as easy to export the spreadsheet to .cvs, which all programs
    can read without struggle.
    - SPSS's coach feature was a life saver when I was working toward my MS. When I tried PSPP many years ago, it did not the coach but did have decent documentation.
    - If you're just doing correlation, ANOVA, linear regression, etc. PSPP should work fine.
    - If you want to do anything beyond the basics, you'd probably want to use R
    - When I first started using R (when I started my PhD program) I printed out the manual, spent one day reading it, and by the next was able to figure out enough to run a linear regression. I had some, but not a lot of prior programming experience.
    - When it was time to move beyond a linear regression, I found R's approach very intuitive and easy to use.
    - Just about everything in R is well documented. Sitting down to read the documentation before jumping in is not the most exciting part of the job, but it always pays off

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  • From Esther@21:1/5 to All on Thu Nov 5 05:28:41 2015
    I hope this is the correct forum for this question. If not, perhaps someone could suggest another place to ask it.

    How do the following programs compare on (a) learning curve, and (b) utility for basic-ish stats procedures such as regression, ANOVA, MANOVA, and (c) ease of data handling, e.g., importing from Excel.

    I currently use SPSS and work with social science statistics.

    Here's the list (other suggestions also welcome):

    R
    OpenStat
    PSPP
    Osiris

    Thank you.

    Esther

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  • From David Duffy@21:1/5 to Esther on Sat Nov 7 00:16:42 2015
    Esther <alizadov@gmail.com> wrote:

    How do the following programs compare on (a) learning curve, and
    (b) utility for basic-ish stats procedures such as regression, ANOVA,
    MANOVA, and (c) ease of data handling, e.g., importing from Excel.
    R
    OpenStat
    PSPP
    Osiris

    R via the Rcmdr package might be worth a look http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox/Misc/Rcmdr/

    Cheers, David Duffy.

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  • From David Jones@21:1/5 to Esther on Sat Nov 7 01:03:56 2015
    On Thu, 05 Nov 2015 13:28:41 -0000, Esther <alizadov@gmail.com> wrote:

    I hope this is the correct forum for this question. If not, perhaps
    someone could suggest another place to ask it.

    How do the following programs compare on (a) learning curve, and (b)
    utility for basic-ish stats procedures such as regression, ANOVA,
    MANOVA, and (c) ease of data handling, e.g., importing from Excel.

    I currently use SPSS and work with social science statistics.

    Here's the list (other suggestions also welcome):

    R
    OpenStat
    PSPP
    Osiris

    Thank you.

    Esther

    Of these, I only have experience with R and then only to a limited extent.
    The only relevant things I can say are:
    (i) R has some extensive material available online, in particular
    learning material.
    (ii) There are many published books having "using R" in the title (e.g http://www.amazon.co.uk/Statistics-An-Introduction-Using-R/dp/1118941098/ref=dp_ob_title_bk),
    whereas I have seen none based on these other packages.

    --
    Using Opera's mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

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  • From Rich Ulrich@21:1/5 to All on Sat Nov 7 01:57:58 2015
    On Thu, 5 Nov 2015 05:28:41 -0800 (PST), Esther <alizadov@gmail.com>
    wrote:

    I hope this is the correct forum for this question. If not, perhaps someone could suggest another place to ask it.

    How do the following programs compare on (a) learning curve, and (b) utility for basic-ish stats procedures such as regression, ANOVA, MANOVA, and (c) ease of data handling, e.g., importing from Excel.

    I currently use SPSS and work with social science statistics.

    Here's the list (other suggestions also welcome):

    R
    OpenStat
    PSPP
    Osiris


    It looks like a nice over-view at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_statistical_software

    I don't remember anything about OpenStat or Osiris.
    In addition to what I see in the Wikip article --

    PSPP was mentioned a umpteen years ago in the SPSS
    group -- It was (originally) provided as a free version
    of SPSS, so it was similar to SPSS but always behind.
    My wild guess would be that IO would be behind, as
    would the fanciest new procedures. Since Wikip says
    that there is a List, you should browse there.

    IIRC, R was initially (30+ years ago) a similar sort of substitute
    for an expensive and sophisticated commercial package
    called S. I haven't heard S mentioned in a long time, but
    R has thrived. It now has a collection of programs and
    procedures contributed by a large number of specialists,
    which are, not-infrequently, state-of-the-art. There are
    programs that SPSS makes available /only/ by using the
    plugin for accessing R. There is a mailing list, and R has
    a good reputation for its maintainers being good about
    tackling reported errors.

    Compared to using SPSS, coding data manipulations in
    R is more like writing for the Matrix parser than writing
    ordinary syntax. I think.

    I think R does not have the nice features of SPSS
    (or SAS) for easily editing and labeling variables; nor, the
    features for editing output files, if you want those.
    [Does it create plain text?]

    --
    Rich Ulrich

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  • From Esther@21:1/5 to Rich Ulrich on Tue Nov 17 07:45:11 2015
    Thanks to all who wrote.
    Now I have a followup - does anyone know which one of the free programs would be good for path analysis?
    Thanks again.

    -Esther

    On Saturday, November 7, 2015 at 8:57:58 AM UTC+2, Rich Ulrich wrote:
    On Thu, 5 Nov 2015 05:28:41 -0800 (PST), Esther <alizadov@gmail.com>
    wrote:

    I hope this is the correct forum for this question. If not, perhaps someone could suggest another place to ask it.

    How do the following programs compare on (a) learning curve, and (b) utility for basic-ish stats procedures such as regression, ANOVA, MANOVA, and (c) ease of data handling, e.g., importing from Excel.

    I currently use SPSS and work with social science statistics.

    Here's the list (other suggestions also welcome):

    R
    OpenStat
    PSPP
    Osiris


    It looks like a nice over-view at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_statistical_software

    I don't remember anything about OpenStat or Osiris.
    In addition to what I see in the Wikip article --

    PSPP was mentioned a umpteen years ago in the SPSS
    group -- It was (originally) provided as a free version
    of SPSS, so it was similar to SPSS but always behind.
    My wild guess would be that IO would be behind, as
    would the fanciest new procedures. Since Wikip says
    that there is a List, you should browse there.

    IIRC, R was initially (30+ years ago) a similar sort of substitute
    for an expensive and sophisticated commercial package
    called S. I haven't heard S mentioned in a long time, but
    R has thrived. It now has a collection of programs and
    procedures contributed by a large number of specialists,
    which are, not-infrequently, state-of-the-art. There are
    programs that SPSS makes available /only/ by using the
    plugin for accessing R. There is a mailing list, and R has
    a good reputation for its maintainers being good about
    tackling reported errors.

    Compared to using SPSS, coding data manipulations in
    R is more like writing for the Matrix parser than writing
    ordinary syntax. I think.

    I think R does not have the nice features of SPSS
    (or SAS) for easily editing and labeling variables; nor, the
    features for editing output files, if you want those.
    [Does it create plain text?]

    --
    Rich Ulrich

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  • From Bruce Weaver@21:1/5 to Esther on Tue Nov 17 08:46:58 2015
    On Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 10:45:15 AM UTC-5, Esther wrote:
    Thanks to all who wrote.
    Now I have a followup - does anyone know which one of the free programs would be good for path analysis?
    Thanks again.

    -Esther


    The lavaan package for R is becoming quite popular for estimating structural equation models (SEM), including path analysis & confirmatory factor analysis. See the links below for more information.

    http://lavaan.ugent.be/
    http://lavaan.ugent.be/tutorial/sem.html http://blogs.baylor.edu/rlatentvariable/sample-page/r-syntax/ https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/lavaan

    HTH.

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