[R] Making a case for using R in Academia

[Jim Lemon]

Charilaos Skiadas wrote:
> As a addendum to all this, this is one of the responses I got from  
> one of my colleagues:
> 
> "The problem with R is that our students in many social science  
> fields, are expected to know SPSS when they go to graduate school.   
> Not having a background in SPSS would put these students at a  
> disadvantage."
> 
> Is this really the case? Does anyone have any such statistics?
> 
Unfortunately not statistics, but my experience in nearly every 
(psychology) research unit in which I have worked is that my colleagues 
initially expected me to use SPSS and reeled back in horror if I said 
that I preferred something else. They took anywhere from weeks to 
forever to realize that they were getting at least as good, and in many 
cases better, analyses of their data. For many people, statistical 
software is a belief, not an understanding.

Jim