September Double Header: Connecting R/RMarkdown & Microsoft Word using StatTag

Note: This is one of two R-Ladies Chicago events happening this month for our Northside-Southside double header, one in Hyde Park on ⁹⁄₂₄, and another in Evanston on ⁹⁄₂₆. Choose one or attend both!

Dr. Leah Welty will present: “Collaborative Reproducibility: Connecting R/R Markdown and Microsoft Word using StatTag”

Although R Markdown can render documents to Microsoft Word, R/R Markdown users must sometimes transcribe statistical content in to separate Microsoft Word documents (e.g., documents drafted by colleagues in Word, or documents that must be prepared in Word), a process that is error prone, irreproducible, and inefficient. We will present StatTag (www.stattag.org), an open source, free, and user-friendly program we developed to address this problem. StatTag establishes a bi-directional link between R/RMarkdown files and a Word document, and supports a reproducible pipeline even when: (1) statistical results must be included and updated in Word documents that were never generated from Markdown; and (2) text in Word files generated from R/RMarkdown has departed substantially from original Markdown content, for example through tracked changes or comments. We will demonstrate how to use StatTag to connect R/RMarkdown and Word files so that all files can be edited separately, but statistical content –values, tables, figures, and verbatim output– can be updated automatically in Word. Using practical examples, we will also illustrate how to use StatTag to view, edit, and rerun R/RMarkdown code directly from Word. The talk will also include an overview of reproducible research in the collaborative research.

Please note:
Our primary mission is to encourage more women and non-binary individuals to get involved in the R community. As such, we strongly encourage that all men who attend this event have a female or non-binary sponsor, as spots may be limited. Please contact chicago@rladies.org if you have questions.

Please RSVP through Meetup.