Software for Data & Digital Scholarship

• Statistical Software Comparison by NYU Data Services
• Statistical Language Wars infographic from DataCamp Blog
• The Popularity of Data Analysis Software

Free Cross-Platform Software

• Jamovi - Slick, easy-to-use, point-and-click interface running on R.
  • Easy to install and learn; single window and file make it easy to work with.
  • Modules allow for advanced analyses, including Mixed Models
    • Jamovi Tutorials YouTube Playlist from Alexander Swan, Ph.D.
• R / RStudio - Powerful statistical language 
  • Can be difficult for some, but simplified syntax (e.g., MOSAIC, jmv) is available
• PSPP - Meant to simulate SPSS, with just the most-used functions
  • Similar interface and output, allows SPSS Syntax. But does not quite look identical, even if all menu items are in the same place.
  • Appropriate for a first-semester statistics class
    • PSPP Tutorials YouTube Playlist from Alexander Swan, Ph.D.

Online Environments

• Stata: Mason's Virtual Computing Lab
• SAS: Amazon AWS for SAS
• R/ RStudio: Posit Cloud   (Instructions for teaching)

Mason has academic site licenses for SPSS and SAS and has purchased lab licenses (allowing coursework) for Stata. SPSS and SAS are on all ITU computers, and all three are accessible through the Virtual Computing Lab (VCL). From feedback, Stata seems to work reasonably well through the VCL, after the initial learning curve. However, there are frequent complaints about SPSS being slow and being difficult to work with given multiple windows.