Data Analysis, Visualization and Scientific Publishing with R & Rstudio

November 15-22,2022

9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Instructors: Mesfin Diro

Helpers: TBA

General Information

This Training Workshop aims to help researchers get their work done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic research computing skills. This hands-on workshop will cover basic concepts and tools, including data management, data cleaning , Data analysis and Scientific Report Writing. Participants will be encouraged to help one another and to apply what they have learned to their own research problems.

For more information on what we teach and why, please see our paper "Best Practices for Scientific Computing".

Who: The training course is aimed researchers. You don't need to have any previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented at the workshop.

Where: Addis Ababa Science & Technology University. Get directions with OpenStreetMap or Google Maps.

When: November 15-22,2022. Add to your Google Calendar.

Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.) that they have administrative privileges on. They should have a few specific software packages installed (listed below).

Contact: Please email mesfin.diro@aau.edu.et for more information.


Schedule

Day 1

09:00 Data Organization in Spreadsheets
10:30 Coffee
11:00 Spreadsheets(Continued)
12:00 Lunch break
13:00 Data Cleaning in OpenRefine
14:30 Coffee
15:00 OpenRefine(Continued)
16:00 Wrap-up

Day 2

09:00 Introduction to R
10:30 Coffee
11:00 R(continued): Starting with data
12:00 Lunch break
13:00 R(continued):Aggregating and analyzing data
14:30 Coffee
15:00 R(continued): Aggregating and analyzing data
16:00 Wrap-up

Day 3

09:00 R(continued): Data Visualization with ggplot2
10:30 Coffee
11:00 R(continued): Data Visualization ggplot2
12:00 Lunch break
13:00 R(continued): Data Visualization ggplot2
14:30 Coffee
15:00 R(continued): Data Visualization ggplot2
16:00 Wrap-up

Day 4

09:00 R(continued): Intermediate methods
10:30 Coffee
11:00 R(continued): Intermediate methods
12:00 Lunch break
13:00 R(continued): Intermediate methods
14:30 Coffee
15:00 R(continued): Intermediate methods
16:00 Wrap-up

Day 5

09:00 R(continued): Advanced methods
10:30 Coffee
11:00 R(continued): Advanced methods
12:00 Lunch break
13:00 R(continued): Advanced methods
14:30 Coffee
15:00 R(continued): Advanced methods
16:00 Wrap-up

Day 6

09:00 Publish high-quality articles with Quarto
10:30 Coffee
11:00 Creating contents with Markdown
12:00 Lunch break
13:00 Generate outputs in Many Formats
14:30 Coffee
15:00 Publishing documents and sites
16:00 Wrap-up

We will use this collaborative document for chatting, taking notes, and sharing URLs and bits of code.


Syllabus

Data Organization with Spreadsheet

  • Introduction to spreadsheet
  • formating Data Tables
  • Formating Problems
  • Dates as data
  • Quality Control
  • Export data
  • Reference...

Data Cleaning with OpenRefine

  • Introduction to OpenRefine
  • Importing data
  • Data faceing with OpenRefine
  • Clustering With OpenRefine
  • Reference...

Data Analysis with R

  • Introduction to R
  • Starting with data
  • Aggregating and analyzing data with dplyr
  • Data visualization with ggplot2
  • Intermediate methods(regression and anova) with R
  • Advanced methods(generalized linear model(glm), cluster analysis and classification) with R

Scientific Articles with Quarto

  • Basics of R Makdown and Quarto
  • Pandoc Markdown
  • Author with scientific markdown, including equations, crossrefs, figure panels, callouts, advanced layout, and more.
  • Publish high-quality articles, reports, presentations, websites, blogs, and books in differnt formats(pdf, HTML, MS Word, Markdown,ePub, Beamer etc)
  • Biblography and citations
  • Compiling Reports from Quarto
  • Journal Article and Thesis Writing with Quarto

Requirements: The training is hands-on, so participants are encouraged to bring in and use their own laptops to insure the proper setup of tools for an efficient workflow once you leave the workshop. (We will provide instructions on setting up the required software several days in advance) There are no pre-requisites, and we will assume no prior knowledge about the tools.

Setup

To participate in a Data Carpentry workshop, you will need access to the software described below. In addition, you will need an up-to-date web browser.

We maintain a list of common issues that occur during installation as a reference for instructors that may be useful on the Configuration Problems and Solutions wiki page.

The Bash Shell

Bash is a commonly-used shell that gives you the power to do simple tasks more quickly.

Windows

Video Tutorial
  1. Download the Git for Windows installer.
  2. Run the installer and follow the steps bellow:
    1. Click on "Next".
    2. Click on "Next".
    3. Keep "Use Git from the Windows Command Prompt" selected and click on "Next". If you forgot to do this programs that you need for the workshop will not work properly. If this happens rerun the installer and select the appropriate option.
    4. Click on "Next".
    5. Keep "Checkout Windows-style, commit Unix-style line endings" selected and click on "Next".
    6. Keep "Use Windows' default console window" selected and click on "Next".
    7. Click on "Install".
    8. Click on "Finish".
  3. If your "HOME" environment variable is not set (or you don't know what this is):
    1. Open command prompt (Open Start Menu then type cmd and press [Enter])
    2. Type the following line into the command prompt window exactly as shown:

      setx HOME "%USERPROFILE%"

    3. Press [Enter], you should see SUCCESS: Specified value was saved.
    4. Quit command prompt by typing exit then pressing [Enter]

This will provide you with both Git and Bash in the Git Bash program.

Mac OS X

The default shell in all versions of Mac OS X is Bash, so no need to install anything. You access Bash from the Terminal (found in /Applications/Utilities). See the Git installation video tutorial for an example on how to open the Terminal. You may want to keep Terminal in your dock for this workshop.

Linux

The default shell is usually Bash, but if your machine is set up differently you can run it by opening a terminal and typing bash. There is no need to install anything.

Text Editor

When you're writing code, it's nice to have a text editor that is optimized for writing code, with features like automatic color-coding of key words. The default text editor on Mac OS X and Linux is usually set to Vim, which is not famous for being intuitive. if you accidentally find yourself stuck in it, try typing the escape key, followed by :q! (colon, lower-case 'q', exclamation mark), then hitting Return to return to the shell.

Windows

Video Tutorial

nano is a basic editor and the default that instructors use in the workshop. To install it, download the Data Carpentry Windows installer and double click on the file to run it. This installer requires an active internet connection.

Others editors that you can use are Notepad++ or Sublime Text. Be aware that you must add its installation directory to your system path. Please ask your instructor to help you do this.

Mac OS X

nano is a basic editor and the default that instructors use in the workshop. See the Git installation video tutorial for an example on how to open nano. It should be pre-installed.

Others editors that you can use are Text Wrangler or Sublime Text.

Linux

nano is a basic editor and the default that instructors use in the workshop. It should be pre-installed.

Others editors that you can use are Gedit, Kate or Sublime Text.

Python

Python is a popular language for research computing, and great for general-purpose programming as well. Installing all of its research packages individually can be a bit difficult, so we recommend Anaconda, an all-in-one installer.

Regardless of how you choose to install it, please make sure you install Python version 3.x (e.g., 3.4 is fine).

We will teach Python using the IPython notebook, a programming environment that runs in a web browser. For this to work you will need a reasonably up-to-date browser. The current versions of the Chrome, Safari and Firefox browsers are all supported (some older browsers, including Internet Explorer version 9 and below, are not).

Windows

Video Tutorial
  1. Open http://continuum.io/downloads with your web browser.
  2. Download the Python 3 installer for Windows.
  3. Install Python 3 using all of the defaults for installation except make sure to check Make Anaconda the default Python.

Mac OS X

Video Tutorial
  1. Open http://continuum.io/downloads with your web browser.
  2. Download the Python 3 installer for OS X.
  3. Install Python 3 using all of the defaults for installation.

Linux

  1. Open http://continuum.io/downloads with your web browser.
  2. Download the Python 3 installer for Linux.
    (Installation requires using the shell. If you aren't comfortable doing the installation yourself stop here and request help at the workshop.)
  3. Open a terminal window.
  4. Type
    bash Anaconda3-
    and then press tab. The name of the file you just downloaded should appear. If it does not, navigate to the folder where you downloaded the file, for example with:
    cd Downloads
    Then, try again.
  5. Press enter. You will follow the text-only prompts. To move through the text, press the space key. Type yes and press enter to approve the license. Press enter to approve the default location for the files. Type yes and press enter to prepend Anaconda to your PATH (this makes the Anaconda distribution the default Python).
  6. Close the terminal window.