Data Services
Emory Center for Digital Scholarship (ECDS)
Woodruff Library, Room 303
We help researchers with locating quantitative data and with cleaning and preparing data for analysis.
We are currently doing consults both in person or via Zoom.
Help with R/SAS/SPSS/Stata
This page is a collection of links for help with using R, SAS, SPSS, and Stata. The guides are very "from-the-ground-up" and cover multiple topics, from the basics of getting data into the program to various common data-management tasks to introductory data analysis.
These guides generally focus on using syntax to work with and analyze data in statistical software. While there are learning curves of varying degrees of steepness with each of these applications, a syntax-based approach to working with data is a more robust and reproducible means of doing empirical analysis and is the flip side of proper citation with regard to the coin of transparency in quantitative research. Simply put, syntax is documentation that spells out what you did to process and analyze the data and produce your findings, and access to that syntax thus shows others how you got your results. Some journals such as the American Economic Review and the American Journal of Political Science even require submission of syntax for cleaning and analyzing data as part of their submission policies on data availability.
For additional guidance on working with data, see the following:
- "Coding for Economists" - An introduction to coding, using Python and focusing on Economics, but applicable more generally.
- "Data Organization in Spreadsheets" - Excellent guidance and suggestions for how to format spreadsheets for data analysis.
- "DIME Wiki" - The World Bank's Development Impact Evaluation group has a very extensive guide for data collection, management, and publication. The guide includes a handbook at https://worldbank.github.io/dime-data-handbook/ with additional guidance and recommendations. Many of the coding examples are Stata-specific, but the principles and recommendations are more broadly applicable.
- "Stata for Researchers: Project Management" - Written for Stata users, but applicable more generally.
- The Teaching Integrity in Empirical Research Project's recommended specifications and processes for working with data.
- "Tidy Data" - Written for R users, but applicable more generally.
R Resources:
"Advanced R," by Hadley Wickham
"Data Transformation with dplyr:: Cheat Sheet"
"Getting Started in Data Analysis Using Stata and R," by Oscar Torres-Reyna, Princeton University
"Quick-R - 'Accessing the Power of R'"
"R for Data Science," by Garrett Grolemund and Hadley Wickham
"R - "Quick List of Useful R Packages"
"R for Stata Users," by Matthieu Gomez, Princeton University
"R Graphics Cookbook," by Winston Chang
"R Markdown Cookbook," by Yihui Xie, Christopher Dervieux, and Emily Riderer
"Regular Expressions in R,", from Dr. Joshua C. Fjelstul
"Resources to Help You Learn and Use R," from UCLA's Academic Technology Services
"Tidyverse - R Packages for Data Science," by Hadley Wickham
"The Tidyverse Style Guide," by Hadley Wickham
"Using R to Analyse Key UK Surveys," from the UK Data Service (.pdf)
SAS Resources:
"Documentation for SAS Products and Solutions," from the SAS Institute
"Knowledge Base / Samples and SAS Notes," from the SAS Institute
"Main Continuous and Historical NHANES Tutorials," from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - This collection focuses on NHANES data, but the tutorials have useful guidance for analysis of survey data more generally.
"Research Guides: SAS", from Georgia State University Libraries
"Resources to Help You Learn and Use SAS," from UCLA's Academic Technology Services
"SAS I: Getting Started," from the Division of Statistics and Data Sciences at the University of Texas-Austin (.pdf) (via the Internet Archive)
"SAS II: Inferential Statistics," from the Division of Statistics and Data Sciences at the University of Texas-Austin (.pdf) (via the Internet Archive)
"SAS Blogs: Graphically Speaking," from SAS
"SAS Conference Proceedings (1976-Present)" - For searching for papers and proceedings from SAS user conferences.
"SAS Example Code: Examples, Tips, and Tricks"
"SAS Tutorials," from Kent State University Libraries
"Topics in SAS Programming," from UNC's Carolina Population Center
SPSS Resources:
"Resources to Help You Learn and Use SPSS," from UCLA's Academic Technology Services
"SPSS Classes and Seminars," from UCLA's Academic Technology Services
"SPSS Tutorials," from Kent State University Libraries
"SPSS Tutorials," from Ruben Geert Van Den Berg in the Netherlands
"What Is SPSS 20 For Windows?" from the UK Data Service (.pdf)
Stata Resources:
"A Little Bit of Stata Programming Goes A Long Way," from Christopher Baum at Boston College (.pdf)
"CEU MicroData Stata Style Guide" from the Economics Department of the Central European University
"Getting Started in Data Analysis Using Stata and R," by Oscar Torres-Reyna, Princeton University
"Introduction to Stata," by Josh Errickson, University of Michigan
"Introduction to Stata," by Germán Rodríguez, Princeton University
"Main Continuous and Historical NHANES Tutorials," from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - This collection focuses on NHANES data, but the tutorials have useful guidance for analysis of survey data more generally.
"Resources for Learning Stata," from the Stata Corporation
"Resources to Help you Learn and Use Stata," from UCLA's Academic Technology Services
"The Stata Guide on Medium," from Asjad Naqvi
"Stata Cheat Sheets," from the "Fundamentals of Data Analysis and Visualization" Project
"Stata Cheat Sheets," from the Stata Corporation
"Stata Cheat Sheets," from Survey Design and Analysis Services (.pdf)
"Dates and Times in Stata," from Survey Design and Analysis Services (.pdf)
"What Is Stata?" from the UK Data Service (.pdf)