A Guide to R for Social and Behavioral Science Statistics is a short, accessible book for learning R, geared toward social and behavioral science students. Instructors Brian Gillespie, Kathleen Hibbert, and William E. Wagner, III, have combined a review of introductory statistics with an introduction to R to teach readers two of the most valuable skills for research and in the workplace. Designed for readers with no knowledge of statistics or R, A Guide to R for Social and Behavioral Science Statistics follows the most common progression of statistics, starting with basic descriptive statistics, and continuing up through inferential statistics and regression. This text provides step-by-step instructions for working with R, starting with downloading and installing R and RStudio(R), featuring code and output so readers can follow along with each step. Readers can apply their knowledge with examples and exercises featuring data from the General Social Survey in each chapter. Tips on R show users how to avoid common pitfalls in R and most efficiently use the RStudio interface. With frequent reminders of statistical concepts to accompany instructions and tips in R, this text helps readers master R for statistics in the social and behavioral sciences.
Brian Joseph Gillespie, Ph.D. is a researcher in the Faculty of Spatial Sciences at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He is the author of Household Mobility in America: Patterns, Processes, and Outcomes (Palgrave, 2017) and coauthor of The Practice of Survey Research: Theory and Applications (Sage, 2016) and Using and Interpreting Statistics in the Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences (Sage, 2018). He has also published research in a variety of social science journals on topics related to family, migration, the life course, and interpersonal relationships.
Kathleen Charli Hibbert, Ph.D. is a social ecologist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency researching potential health impacts from relationships and interactions between humans and their environment(s). She has published works on micro-activity behavior, intentional living communities, vulnerable communities, e-waste, non-chemical stressors, children's health, and older adult sexuality. She has taught quantitative analysis and research methods in sociology, psychology, and research departments using a variety of statistical applications.
William E. Wagner, III, PhD, is Chair of the Department of Sociology at California State University, Dominguez Hills and Executive Director of the Social Science Research & Instructional Council of the CSU. He is co-author of Adventures in Social Research, 11th edition (SAGE, 2022), The Practice of Survey Research (SAGE, 2016), and A Guide to R for Social and Behavioral Sciences (SAGE, 2020) and author of Using IBM(R) SPSS(R) Statistics for Research Methods and Social Science Statistics, 7th edition (SAGE, 2019).
