R statistics software

R is a free, open-source, and incredibly powerful statistical software package that we use in our lab.

• The main site:  http://www.r-project.org/
• Nice introductory site (Quick R for SAS/SPSS users): http://www.statmethods.net/
• Great set of example R graphics with code (R graph gallery): http://addictedtor.free.fr/graphiques/thumbs.php
• Geographic Data Analysis (a course): http://geography.uoregon.edu/bartlein/courses/geog414/index.html
• Very useful R "cheat sheet": R Reference card (T. Short)  (reformatted to 1 double-sided sheet)
• Nice R resources at UCLA: http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/r/, with examples of code in R, SPSS, SAS
• R in the NY Times (1/8/2009) 

R Book Review

On February 3, 2009, we reviewed 12 of the most popular general books on R (at Amazon.com), and ranked them in three categories: 

• *Best?* Introductory book on R software = A First Course in Statistical Programming with R (2008) Braun and Murdoch. *NOTE: Please read the full review before deciding to purchase this book!
• Best R Reference book = The R Book (2007) Crawley
• Best Introductory Statistics book = Statistics: An Introduction using R (2005) Crawley; (runner up = Introductory Statistics with R (2008) Dalgaard)

Other useful R books:

• Great R book for existing SPSS/SAS users (and generally good as an intro to R): R for SAS and SPSS Users (2008) Muenchen
• Best R book for programmers:  Software for Data Analysis: Programming with R (2008), John M. Chambers

Details on the review are <here>, including the full list of R books we reviewed.