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Research Data Management

Processing data

Data analysis is the process of analyzing data sets to conclude on meaningful information they carry, in order to progress with a decision (i.e. the continuation of research).  The process may include looking for correlations and performing statistical analysis, to describing and analyzing images or text, with the usage of specialized software and system.

Data visualization is the graphical representation of information and data in a pictorial or graphical format and it uses charts or graphs, diagrams, images, animations, and infographics.  With data visualization researchers are able to recognize trends, patterns and relationships from the data or the datasets used, to draw out meaning.

 

Data analysis & visualization tools

Data analysis and visualization tools can be used to explore, understand, and communicate data insights in a clear and concise way. They can help researcher to make sense of data and share the findings with others, in a compelling way.

Data analysis tools

A very popular and widely used  app for data analysis is Excel.  It uses a grid of cells to organize data manipulations and arithmetic, and offers graphing tools, pivot tables and a macro programming language.

NVivo   is a qualitative data analysis computer software package which is used for the analysis of unstructured text, audio, video, and image data.  NVivo is accessible on PCs located at the ACG labs.

SPSS Statistics is a statistical software suite developed by IBM for data management, advanced analytics, multivariate analysis and business intelligence.  IBM SPSS Statistics is accessible on all Library PCs and on other PCs located at the ACG labs.

MATLAB® is a programming platform designed specifically for engineers and scientists to analyze and design systems and products.  ACG has acquired a certain number of licenses for MATLAB .

R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. It compiles and runs on a wide variety of UNIX platforms, Windows and MacOS.  The R environment consists of an integrated suite of software facilities designed for data manipulation, calculation, and graphical display. 

ArcGIS is a geographic information system that allows you to analyze and visualize geospatial data. It allows you to create maps, georeference data, analyze mapped data, visualize geospatial data, and manage geographic information in a database.  With a free public account, you can create, store, and manage maps, scenes, and apps, and share them with others.

Voyant Tools is an open source, web-based text reading and analysis environment using a range of different visualization methods.  Some are more informative than others; some require more interrogation than others.   It is a scholarly project that is designed to facilitate reading and interpretive practices for digital humanities students and scholars as well as for the general public.

LibreOffice Draw is a free and open source vector graphics editor. Draw is a really useful tool for easily creating diagrams and flowcharts.

Rattle is open source and freely available package written in R providing a graphical user interface to very many other R packages that provide functionality for data mining.

DataBank is an analysis and visualisation tool that contains collections of time series data on a variety of topics. You can create your own queries; generate tables, charts, and maps; and easily save, embed, and share them.

Data visualization tools

Tableau Public is a free platform to publicly share and explore data visualizations online.  Use Tableau to create visuals and explore other visualizations.  

Looker Studio is a dashboard and reporting tools that is free to Google account users and Google Cloud Platform customers.  Users can create charts, graphs, pivot tales, and several types of visualizations (i.e. bar charts, geo maps).  Each visualization has built-in comparison functions, making it easy to see changes in the data period over time.  

Jupyter Notebook  is a free, open source tool that allows users to compile all aspects of a data project in one place making it easier to show the entire process of a project to your intended audience. Through the web-based application, users can create data visualizations and other components of a project to share with others via the platform.

Palladio is an open source project from Stanford university, designed to support unique visualizations of historical and humanistic datasets.

RAWGraphs is an open web tool to create custom vector-based visualizations and it provides a missing link between spreadsheet applications (e.g. Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, OpenRefine) and vector graphics editors (e.g. Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, Sketch).

Piktochart , Canva , Infogram are examples of free web-based graphic design tools and infographic makers.

ColorBrewer.org is an online tool for selecting colour schemes for maps and other graphics.  

Inkscape   is a free and open-source vector graphics editor for GNU/Linux, Windows and macOS.  It offers a rich set of features and is widely used for both artistic and technical illustrations.

Power BI is an interactive data visualization software product developed by Microsoft with a primary focus on business intelligence.  There is an option for a free trial.