Data Visualization

This sheet lists R commands we use by the first lecture in which we introduce them. This file dates to the spring 2021 version of the course.

R Markdown can be a helpful way to create finished products, or even homework. It is how I create the tutorials and R slides that I present in lecture.

I have found in past years that it is somewhat buggy to install for some users, so I do not require it, or even recommend it (though feedback is appreciated). The introductory tutorial that describes how to install R and R Studio also contains instructions for how to install R Markdown. In addition, here is a tutorial I wrote on using R Markdown. Finally, this is the markdown file (.Rmd) that creates the tutorial.

My curated list of online resources for learning R.

R in general

• Statistical Programming DC, primarily a R user group
• Official intro to R
• Coursera videos on R
• Focus on ggplot2: Healy, Data Visualization for Social Science: A practical introduction with R and ggplot2
• Wickham and Grolemund, R for Data Science

Graphs in R

• Producing Simple Graphs in R
• Wickham, Ggplot2: Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis
, free online through Gelman Link
• STDHA ggplot basics
• R graph gallery: chart examples and code

Maps in R

• Workshop
on Spatial Data in R
• Biologist on maps in R
• Micromaps, a very cool map plus chart
• Google Maps with R

• 2021
• Bianca Onwukwe on Baltimore school segregation: brief and presentation
• Eleanor Thompson on North Carolina's opioid epidemic: brief and presentation
• Stephanie Palmer on student debt: brief and presentation
• Jasmine Kaidbey on obesity prevalence and policy: brief and presentation
• 2020
• Kim Wilson on the growth in auto loans; presentation slides.
• Lindsay Thayer on measles outbreaks; presentation slides
• 2019
• Melissa Estheimer on immigration courts; presentation slides. This became a real policy brief
• McCall Pitcher Hopkin on higher education and mobility; presentation slides

• Fundamentals of Data Visualization: book about data visualization using R
• Data Viz Blog
• Data Community DC
• Knaflic's Story Telling with Data
• Information is Beautiful
• Perceptual Edge
• Policy Viz
• Examples from Tableau software

• Visualizations to Emulate
• A super-duper bar chart on elections with all kinds of extra info
• Change over time that is not a line chart: introduction of vaccines and measles prevalence by state
• Information is Beautiful; see especially their annual awards
• “A Field Guide to Red and Blue America”, Wall Street Journal; map and bar chart and change over time
• How to show quantities: lawn and house size over time
• Visualizations Not to Emulate
• See scatter plot, scrolling down (“Negative Equity...”)
• Inequality by city
• New housing units built in California over time
• Shares in confusing depictions, via an article about pre-trial detention in DC from the Washington Post
• Guns over time from the Washington Post
• Confusing bar charts about wearable fitness from the Wall Street Journal
• And others to think for yourself
• Energy maps: quantities of subsidy, and source and destination uses
• Pedestrian crashes in DC, written about written here
• Five Thirty Eight's weirdest charts of 2014
• Data you could analyze
• Elections summary data, table form
• On elections data, by statistics guru Andrew Gelman
• Icons for Everything

1. How to create a R Markdown file (may be somewhat dated)
• R Markdown pdf
• R Markdown .Rmd file

If you would like to have a discussion board activated, or if there are other features on Blackboard that you would like to use, please let me know.