Additional resources for getting further with R

1. Downloading R and RStudio on your own computer

R and RStudio are free to download and use. Go to https://posit.co/download/rstudio-desktop/. Note that you have to download both R and RStudio. If you are using a university or research institute computer, your institution’s software distribution system probably has R and RStudio available.

Next, install some packages. A good start would be tidyverse that we used on the course, which is actually a collection of many useful packages. The easiest way is to use the the Packages tab -> Install in the lower right panel of RStudio. Most packages come from CRAN, R’s central software repository.

2. Websites and books

There are lots of great books, websites and online tutorials for learning more about R. Some examples:

• R for Data Science (free e-book) A great tidyverse-based resource.

• Getting Started with R: An Introduction for Biologists (book)

• Cookbook for R (website) Check for example the section on graphs (lots of information on finetuning your ggplot2 plots).

• Big Book of R (website) A huge collection of R resources.

• Applied Statistics with R (free e-book)

• Learning Statistics with R (free e-book)

• An Introduction to R (free e-book) Covers also the basics of R Markdown and version control.

• Riffomonas Code Club Youtube channel and R scripts. R basics and more advanced tricks especially for microbial ecologists.

• swirl: an R package for interactive self-learning within R

3. R cheat sheets

Cheat sheets are handy collections of commands and options on a specific package or a topic. Here are some examples:

• ggplot2 for plotting
  
• data manipulation with dplyr
  
• data tidying with tidyr

4. Using R on CSC’s supercomputers

If get to the point that your R scripts are too computationally heavy to run on your own computer, it might be time to look for extra resources. R is available on CSC’s supercomputer Puhti. Like many CSC’s services, Puhti is free to use if you are affiliated with a Finnish higher education institution or a state research institute. An introduction to using R in CSC’s services is available as slides here and as a talk here, and further instructions on using the Puhti R environment can be found here.