Statistics software

[Annefnd]

Hey everyone,
I'm currently working on a research project and I'm exploring different statistics software options. I’ve used SPSS in the past (mostly for uni), but I’m now looking for something a bit more flexible—maybe R or Python?
The thing is... I’m not super techy, so I’d love something with a balance between power and usability.

Does anyone have experience transitioning from SPSS to R? Is the learning curve insane or manageable if you follow a good tutorial? And what about the visualization part—any recommendations on packages or tools that make it easier (especially for presentations)?

Also curious if anyone has tried newer tools like Jamovi or JASP.
Would love to hear what works best for your workflow.

Thanks!

[IanF]

Bad news - you focused on a field that AI can do simply and in seconds. I hope you have other skills

[Explosive Newt]

It depends what you do. R isn't challenging now, as Ian suggests, you can get chatGPT or claude.ai to write the code for you. It is good with big datasets and is massively customisable to do more or less any task.

I personally work with small datasets and find it a pain in the arse to wrangle it into the necessary dataframe when I just want to do a quick ANOVA, so for that I use graphpad or SPSS.

[NGRhodes]

I spend a chunk of my job as an RSE supporting researchers HPC/programming issues and their problems are a huge time sink, detracting from the main focus of their research. Unless you are in a computing specific role, its wise to minimise these wastes by KISS, not reinventing the wheel and ensure there is good support for you options.

I would pick whatever language has the libraries and tooling to support your needs, R and python are simple enough, huge list of pros and cons when comparing the base languages. You don't have to stick to one language. I know a few teams that use both R and Python to wrangle data within given projects.

FYI I occasionally teach Python + Pandas, this is an old version of the course - https://arctraining.github.io/python-2021-04/ based on the carpentries, to give you a taster.