Dear R users, I have started work in a Statistics government department and I am trying to convince my bosses to install R on our computers (I can't do proper stats in Excel!!). They asked me to prove that this is a widely used software (and not just another free-source, bug infected toy I found on the web!) by suggesting other big organisations that use it. Are you aware of any reputable places (academic or not) that use R? (e.g. maybe you work for them) I would be really grateful for any advice on this. Also suggestions on arguments I could use to persuade them that R is so much better than Excel would be very much appreciated. Many Thanks Eleni Rapsomaniki
Dear Eleni,
Maybe the participants of the useR conferences are a good start, see
e.g.
http://www.r-project.org/useR-2006/participants.html
Kind regards,
Markus Gesmann
FPMA
Lloyd's Market Analysis
Lloyd's * One Lime Street * London * EC3M 7HA
Telephone +44 (0)20 7327 6472
Fax +44 (0)20 7327 5718
http://www.lloyds.com
SAVE PAPER - THINK BEFORE YOU PRINT
-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org]
On Behalf Of Eleni Rapsomaniki
Sent: 25 September 2007 11:46
To: r-help at r-project.org
Subject: [R] Who uses R?
Dear R users,
I have started work in a Statistics government department and I am
trying to
convince my bosses to install R on our computers (I can't do proper
stats in
Excel!!). They asked me to prove that this is a widely used software
(and not
just another free-source, bug infected toy I found on the web!) by
suggesting
other big organisations that use it. Are you aware of any reputable
places
(academic or not) that use R? (e.g. maybe you work for them)
I would be really grateful for any advice on this. Also suggestions on
arguments
I could use to persuade them that R is so much better than Excel would
be very
much appreciated.
Many Thanks
Eleni Rapsomaniki
______________________________________________
R-help at r-project.org mailing list
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
**********************************************************************
The information in this E-Mail and in any attachments is CON...{{dropped}}
On 9/25/07, Eleni Rapsomaniki <e.rapsomaniki at mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk> wrote:> Dear R users, > > I have started work in a Statistics government department and I am trying to > convince my bosses to install R on our computers (I can't do proper stats in > Excel!!). They asked me to prove that this is a widely used software (and not > just another free-source, bug infected toy I found on the web!) by suggesting > other big organisations that use it. Are you aware of any reputable places > (academic or not) that use R? (e.g. maybe you work for them) > > I would be really grateful for any advice on this. Also suggestions on arguments > I could use to persuade them that R is so much better than Excel would be very > much appreciated. > > Many Thanks > Eleni Rapsomaniki >The statistics section of the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, where I work, use R about 70% of the time. The MEB (medical epidemiology and biostatistics) department at Karolinska Institutet, the nordic countries premiere medical university, are also heavy R-users. Best, Gustaf -- Gustaf Rydevik, M.Sci. tel: +46(0)703 051 451 address:Essingetorget 40,112 66 Stockholm, SE skype:gustaf_rydevik
Just speaking of the field I'm most familiar with, there are now users of R in many of the largest financial companies in the world. http://www.burns-stat.com/pages/Tutor/spreadsheet_addiction.html is one place to look for arguments against Excel. This was just updated to include an amusing numerical bug in Excel 2007. Guess what 850 * 77.1 equals. Patrick Burns patrick at burns-stat.com +44 (0)20 8525 0696 http://www.burns-stat.com (home of S Poetry and "A Guide for the Unwilling S User") Eleni Rapsomaniki wrote:>Dear R users, > >I have started work in a Statistics government department and I am trying to >convince my bosses to install R on our computers (I can't do proper stats in >Excel!!). They asked me to prove that this is a widely used software (and not >just another free-source, bug infected toy I found on the web!) by suggesting >other big organisations that use it. Are you aware of any reputable places >(academic or not) that use R? (e.g. maybe you work for them) > >I would be really grateful for any advice on this. Also suggestions on arguments >I could use to persuade them that R is so much better than Excel would be very >much appreciated. > >Many Thanks >Eleni Rapsomaniki > >______________________________________________ >R-help at r-project.org mailing list >https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > > > >
You could provide examples of errors, which Excel gives in computations, in comparison to R. Excel could not calculate inverse matrix for my task, so I was to find something better, and I've found R (it was version 1.2, as far as I remember). My another problem was scripting (R is more convenient, but harder to learn). You can also notice the publication quality graphics. e.rapsomaniki wrote:> > Dear R users, > > I have started work in a Statistics government department and I am trying > to > convince my bosses to install R on our computers (I can't do proper stats > in > Excel!!). They asked me to prove that this is a widely used software (and > not > just another free-source, bug infected toy I found on the web!) by > suggesting > other big organisations that use it. Are you aware of any reputable places > (academic or not) that use R? (e.g. maybe you work for them) > > I would be really grateful for any advice on this. Also suggestions on > arguments > I could use to persuade them that R is so much better than Excel would be > very > much appreciated. > > Many Thanks > Eleni Rapsomaniki >-- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Who-uses-R--tf4514754.html#a12877703 Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
On 25-Sep-07 10:46:17, Eleni Rapsomaniki wrote:> Dear R users, > > I have started work in a Statistics government department > and I am trying to convince my bosses to install R on our > computers (I can't do proper stats in Excel!!). They asked > me to prove that this is a widely used software (and not > just another free-source, bug infected toy I found on the > web!) by suggesting other big organisations that use it. > Are you aware of any reputable places (academic or not) > that use R? (e.g. maybe you work for them) > > I would be really grateful for any advice on this. Also > suggestions on arguments I could use to persuade them that > R is so much better than Excel would be very much appreciated. > > Many Thanks > Eleni RapsomanikiDear Eleni, You deserve all the support we can give you! As well as the many other cogent suggestions you will get (and I hope there will be plenty of citations of articles published in prestigious journals), the following may also be helpful: Pat Altham (now retired) developed extensive teaching (and other) materials in R at the Cambridge University Statistical Laboratory. From her personal web page: "Some of the computer languages I have had to try to learn since graduating in 1964: Cambridge autocode, algol, phoenix, machine-code, Fortran, BBC-Basic, GLIM, GENSTAT, Linux, S-Plus and finally (probably the best so far!) R." See http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~pat/ for more details and for links to her R material. Good luck! Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 25-Sep-07 Time: 12:40:36 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
Eleni, FWIW, there are a number of us in the U.S. NOAA/National Weather Service and at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) (who wrote the 'Verification' package) who use R for verification of meteorological and hydrologic forecasts, aiding in the calibration of distributed hydrologic models, and in the analysis of radar estimated precipitation biases, and more? Regards, Tom Eleni Rapsomaniki wrote:> Dear R users, > > I have started work in a Statistics government department and I am trying to > convince my bosses to install R on our computers (I can't do proper stats in > Excel!!). They asked me to prove that this is a widely used software (and not > just another free-source, bug infected toy I found on the web!) by suggesting > other big organisations that use it. Are you aware of any reputable places > (academic or not) that use R? (e.g. maybe you work for them) > > I would be really grateful for any advice on this. Also suggestions on arguments > I could use to persuade them that R is so much better than Excel would be very > much appreciated. > > Many Thanks > Eleni Rapsomaniki > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > >-- Thomas E Adams National Weather Service Ohio River Forecast Center 1901 South State Route 134 Wilmington, OH 45177 EMAIL: thomas.adams at noaa.gov VOICE: 937-383-0528 FAX: 937-383-0033
--- Eleni Rapsomaniki <e.rapsomaniki at mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk> wrote:> Dear R users, > > I have started work in a Statistics government > department and I am trying to > convince my bosses to install R on our computers (I > can't do proper stats in > Excel!!). > I would be really grateful for any advice on this. > Also suggestions on arguments > I could use to persuade them that R is so much > better than Excel would be very > much appreciated. > > Many Thanks > Eleni RapsomanikiHere are some of the arguments for not using Excel (& other spread sheets) for statistical analysis. Problems With Using Microsoft Excel for Statistics Microsoft Excel for Statistics http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jcryer/JSMTalk2001.pdf Spread sheet addiction http://www.burns-stat.com/pages/Tutor/spreadsheet_addiction.html Using Excel for survey analysis ( by J. Cryer) http://www.audiencedialogue.org/excel1.html Is Microsoft Excel an Adequate Statistics Package? http://www.practicalstats.com/Pages/excelstats.html Use of Excel for Statistical Analysis http://www.agresearch.co.nz/Science/Statistics/exceluse1.htm Should Microsoft Excel Software Be Used For Statistical Analysis Or Graphics? ( J. Cryer) http://gcrc.ucsd.edu/biostatistics/Excel.pdf Statistical analysis using Microsoft Excel http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~jsimonof/classes/1305/pdf/excelreg.pdf Statistical flaws in Excel http://www.mis.coventry.ac.uk/~nhunt/pottel.pdf NOTE X: USE OF EXCEL IN STATISTICS COURSES AND LABORATORIES - SOME PROS AND CONS http://www.daheiser.info/excel/notes/notex.pdf Using Excel for Statistics :Tips and Warnings http://www.reading.ac.uk/ssc/publications/guides/xfs.pdf Doing statistics with a speadsheet -Perhaps not a good idea? (J. Kane) http://groups.google.ca/group/sci.stat.edu/browse_thread/thread/b2e6def39c6b8ef4/1f6bbe4e398a1e0d?q=John+Kane+Excel&rnum=1#1f6bbe4e398a1e0d