'The real threat is a slow, comfortable drift toward not understanding what you're doing. Not a dramatic collapse. Just a generation of researchers who can produce results but can't produce understanding'
What a nice post on AI, education, learning, research and academia
Data Organization in Spreadsheets Karl W. Broman & Kara H. Woo Pages 2-10 | Received 01 Jun 2017, Accepted author version posted online: 29 Sep 2017, Published online: 24 Apr 2018 1. Introduction 2. Be Consistent 3. Choose Good Names for Things 4. Write Dates as YYYY-MM-DD 5. No Empty Cells 6. Put Just One Thing in a Cell 7. Make it a Rectangle 8. Create a Data Dictionary 9. No Calculations in the Raw Data Files 10. Do Not Use Font Color or Highlighting as Data 11. Make Backups 12. Use Data Validation to Avoid Errors 13. Save the Data in Plain Text Files ABSTRACT Spreadsheets are widely used software tools for data entry, storage, analysis, and visualization. Focusing on the data entry and storage aspects, this article offers practical recommendations for organizing spreadsheet data to reduce errors and ease later analyses. The basic principles are: be consistent, write dates like YYYY-MM-DD, do not leave any cells empty, put just one thing in a cell, organize the data as a single rectangle (with subjects as rows and variables as columns, and with a single header row), create a data dictionary, do not include calculations in the raw data files, do not use font color or highlighting as data, choose good names for things, make backups, use data validation to avoid data entry errors, and save the data in plain text files.
Every day is a good day for sharing one of the most useful papers about research data ever written. PLEASE get your people to understand and follow this advice.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Did students adopt Positron on their own after seeing you using it? This often happened to me when student saw that I used Positron and not RStudio. But I like the idea of making RStudio the basis and offering Positron as optional for those that are into it.
Interesting. I considered switching when I was teaching PhD students with R Studio last year. One of them asked about Positron and I briefly showed them. The next day almost everyone made the switch on their own :)
I agree. At first, I thought Positron is just as easy as RStudio as long as you just do the basic things (open project, run code). But I think this is my bias as someone more experienced. Just opening the settings in RStudio/Positron is already a different level of complexity.
Thanks, this is really helpful. Maybe for beginners, RStudio is still the way to go. It's so stable, straightforward and beginner-friendly.
Hey #rstats teachers: Do you teach RStudio or Positron?
I'm prepping a workshop and unsure what to use. I've always taught RStudio but switched to Positron myself. Positron has many advantages but RStudio may be less overwhelming to beginners.
What's your teaching experience? Pros/Cons for either?
dplyr 1.2.0 is out now and we are SO excited!
- `filter_out()` for dropping rows
- `recode_values()`, `replace_values()`, and `replace_when()` that join `case_when()` as a complete family of recoding/replacing tools
These are huge quality of life wins for #rstats!
tidyverse.org/blog/2026/02...
You can join my free online lecture on GitHub Copilot (Thu 18.12., 4-5 pm CET)
I’ll show context-aware code completion, chatting with your scripts and projects & responsible use.
I'll use R/Python + Positron; but works similarly in other languages/editors.
👉 Details & link: tinyurl.com/2xubc787
A festive digital illustration features the blue R logo wearing a red Santa hat with white trim on the left. To its right stands a green Christmas tree made entirely of curly braces arranged in a triangular shape. White and light-blue %>% pipe symbols float across a dark blue, starry background like snowflakes. A speech bubble above the R logo says “Ho Ho Ho! 📦” in red text. At the bottom, white text reads: “R Package Development Advent Calendar 2025” and below it, “25 Days of Coding Magic • Dec 1–25.”
🎄 ANNOUNCEMENT: R Package Development Advent Calendar 2025! 🎄
Starting December 1st, I'm launching a 25-day journey through modern R package development. here's why you should follow along 🧵
#rstats #RPackageAdvent2025 #OpenSource
If you want to learn about notetaking with Obsidian you can join my online lecture tomorrow 👇
You can join my free online lecture on notetaking with Obsidian next Thursday (Nov 18, 4–5 pm CET).
I use Obsidian every day to take notes and stay organized. I’ll show how to manage references, tasks, meetings, ideas, and create a connected “second brain.”
👉 Details & link: tinyurl.com/57zkx5jt
lets gooooo! Do some math with me
Our new paper about scale dependency of phytoinvasions in grasslands based on data from Ukraine. Unfortunately some of our sampling plots still under Russian occupation
Paper out🎉Spatial scale matters for grassland invasions
doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...
▶️Native richness limits invaders, but effect weakens at larger scales
▶️Old aliens respond to climate & disturbance🌧️
▶️Neophytes & invasives thrive with roads, urban & croplands 🚗
#sCaleGrassDiv @idiv-research.bsky.social
❗️Our next workshop will be on Oct 30, 2 pm CEST titled Data Literacy in Julia for Rtists by
@dwinkl.bsky.social
Register or sponsor a student by donating to support Ukraine!
Details: bit.ly/3wBeY4S
Please share!
#AcademicSky #EconSky #RStats
Image shows a poster for the 'Lunchbox Models' seminar series. It shows a sandwich illustration between green boxes with information regarding the seminar series. The left column has general information and the right side has the schedule for the first 11 talks. All the info can be found on the webpage of the seminar series (linked in posting text and QR Code in poster). Several other food item illustrations are used as decoration, e.g. onigiri, coffee/tea cups, and pasta on a fork.
Announcing 🍱 Lunchbox Models 🍱
– an online seminar series all about ecological modelling & career insights, hosted by the @gfoesoc.bsky.social AKs Computational Ecology and YoMos 🦊
Find the topics and details as well as access to Zoom on our webpage: www.yomos.org/lunchbox-mod...
Please share!
Just 3 days left until this workshop, so don't miss your chance to register!
Details: bit.ly/3wBeY4S
Please share!
#AcademicSky #EconSky #RStats
You will also get recordings of the workshops you register for - maybe that's an alternative? It's also worth to browse past workshops, there are some really interesting ones for which you can get recordings.
Check out the workshop website for more info: sites.google.com/view/dariia-...
Want to learn to write fast R code—and support Ukraine while doing it?
Join my workshop Thursday, August 28th 6-8 pm CEST!
We’ll cover profiling & benchmarking, and take a tour of fast packages like data.table, collapse, Rcpp and more...
With plenty of code examples & hands-on practice!
#rstats
Grouping of trophic compartments, their biomass stocks (shown by circles), and energy flows among them (shown by arrows) into trophic groups, ecosystem functions, trophic levels, and aboveground (AG) versus belowground (BG) subnetworks. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecm.70004
Paper is out in Ecological Monographs @esajournals.bsky.social
Plant diversity facets differentially affect energy dynamics in grasslands depending on trophic contexts doi.org/10.1002/ecm....
Research in @jena-experiment.bsky.social
Paper out in Ecology and Evolution @ecol-evol.bsky.social
Scale-Dependent Effects of Plant Diversity Drivers Across Different Grassland Habitats in Ukraine doi.org/10.1002/ece3...
result of #sDiv synthesis working #sCaleGrassDiv in @iDiv www.idiv.de/research/sdi...