If you’re a baby biologist, you may soon encounter one of your first hurdles: data analysis. Excel, Prism, R, there are lots of options for analyzing your data, and they all have different purposes. I’ll be explaining how you could quickly and easily learn to code in R for a few reasons:
R is free: other software that you may use to analyze data, like Prism, for example, may not be accessible to someone just starting out, since it comes with a cost of about $150/year.
Most troubleshooting and code can be worked out online. There are lots of resources for finding R code online. I’ll explain them in this post.
It’s commonly used by biologists. At both my undergrad and grad school, I have been provided courses to teach students R.
Getting Started
There are a few ways you could get started with coding in R.
Free EdX Course: https://www.edx.org/learn/r-programming/harvard-university-data-science-r-basics
I think this course is a good intro to R. You can either take the classes for free or pay for the certificate if you choose. This course will give you the tools needed to clean your data and run basic analyses and visualizations.
Learn on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RProgramming101
R Program 101 has great videos that start at the very beginning. You’ll be walked through how to download R, how to visualize data, and more! These videos are short so that you can learn small bits of R at a time.
Reading: If you prefer to supplement by reading
R for Data Science by Garrett Grolemund &
Hadley Wickham R in Action by Robert Kabacoff
Troubleshooting
There are lots of places you could go to online if you are having trouble with your code. At times, I ask ChatGPT or consult websites like Stack Overflow. There are also cheatsheets that have been contributed by people in the community. You can find them here!
If you’re keen to learn R, I hope some of these resources help you out!
Hi, I’m Isabella!
I’m a Ph.D. student passionate about science communication and mentoring younger scientists. I post on My Ph.Diary. on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, sharing my lab experiences, advice on navigating research, and any biological topics that pique my curiosity. Subscribe below to stay updated!
R is on my list to learn - even though I don't need it for my job. I have bought the book "R for linguists" and will work through it after finishing with Python.
R programming is essential for us and must learn for upcoming researchers