Data Carpentry’s aim is to teach researchers basic concepts, skills, and tools for working with data so that they can get more done in less time, and with less pain. The lessons below were designed for those interested in working with social sciences data in R.
This is an introduction to R designed for participants with no programming experience. These lessons can be taught in a day (~ 6 hours). They start with some basic information about R syntax, the RStudio interface, and move through how to import CSV files, the structure of data frames, how to deal with factors, how to add/remove rows and columns, how to calculate summary statistics from a data frame, and a brief introduction to plotting.
Getting Started
Data Carpentry’s teaching is hands-on, so participants are encouraged to use their own computers to ensure the proper setup of tools for an efficient workflow.
These lessons assume no prior knowledge of the skills or tools.
To get started, follow the directions in the “Setup” tab to download data to your computer and follow any installation instructions.
Prerequisites
This lesson requires a working copy of R and RStudio.
To most effectively use these materials, please make sure to install everything before working through this lesson.
For Instructors
If you are teaching this lesson in a workshop, please see the Instructor notes.