Below is a table that outlines how each software can be used and the pros and cons of using it.
| Software | Cost | Code vs. GUI | GUI Data Manip | GUI Analysis | CLEAR Lab Users | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excel | Free | GUI | YES | NO | ALL | Cleaning and reviewing CSVs |
| SPSS | Dept $$ | GUI, has its own code language | YES | YES | ALL | Cleaning and reviewing qualtrics downloads for labels and formatting accuracy. Easily creates data dictionaries-- this is the primary reason that we continue to use it. |
| Jamovi | Free | GUI, Spits out R Code | YES | YES | Tory | Essentially a free version of SPSS that sits on top of R, tracks changes made to the dataset, and lets you do point and click analyses (also outputting R code for all analyses). Dictionary features might not be as useful as SPSS, need to look into this more. |
| R | Free | Has its own code language | NO | NO | Grads, Tory | Best investment of your time when learning to code. Overall the wave of the future. Can do pretty much everything except point-and-click data cleaning/dictionary development; Automating SAS and mplus |
| SAS | Free; | |||||
| Grant $$$ for time series | has its own code language, SAS Studio has GUI | NO | Yes, in SAS Studio | Tory, Jackie | Clinical trials data analysis, advanced specification for MLMs; Automating mplus | |
| Mplus | Grant | |||||
| $$$$ | Has its own code language | NO | NO | Tory, Jackie | Doing MLM with latent variables/MSEM, doing SEM, doing generalized MLMs with zero-inflated variables | |
| G*Power | Free | GUI | YES | Power analysis only |