r2spss: Format R Output to Look Like SPSS

title: 'r2spss: Format R output to look like SPSS for use in teaching materials' tags: - R - SPSS - statistics - teaching materials date: "21 November 2021" output: html_document: df_print: paged authors: - name: Andreas Alfons^[Corresponding author] orcid: 0000-0002-2513-3788 affiliation: 1 bibliography: paper.bib affiliations: - name: Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands index: 1

Summary

With a focus on creating teaching materials, the add-on package r2spss [@r2spss] for the statistical computing environment R [@R] allows to create graphics and LaTeX [e.g., @LaTeX] tables that to look like output of the statistical software platform SPSS [@SPSS]. The package provides functionality for techniques that are typically covered in introductory statistics classes: descriptive statistics, common hypothesis tests, ANOVA, and linear regression, as well as box plots, histograms, scatter plots, and line plots (including profile plots).

Statement of need

Many academic programs in the social sciences or economics require to teach statistics with SPSS [@SPSS]. Preparing teaching materials in this case typically involves copying-and-pasting SPSS output into documents or slides, which is cumbersome and prone to errors. Moreover, this approach is not scalable for regular updates of the materials, or for individualizing assignments and exams in order to combat fraud. On the other hand, tools such as package knitr [@xie15; @knitr] for integrating the statistical computing environment R [@R] and the document preparation system LaTeX [e.g., @LaTeX] make preparing teaching materials easier, less error-prone, and more scalable. There are even specialized tools such as package exams [@gruen09; @zeileis14; @exams] that allow assignments and exams to be individualized in a scalable manner. Package r2spss makes it possible to leverage those developments for creating teaching materials with SPSS output by mocking up such output with R.