Tidying Up Official Statistics with R and GSBPM - 2024

Tidying Up Official Statistics with ‘R’ and GSBPM

Course Leader

Kristín Ósk Ingvarsdóttir, Ph.D., Expert, International Statistics, Statistics Iceland.

Þórdís Birna Borgarsdóttir, M.Sc., Expert, Social Statistics, Statistics Iceland

Target Group

Statisticians working in the production of official statistics, especially data processing and analysis. No specific experience within official statistics is necessary. The course should both be relevant for junior as well as senior statisticians.

Entry Qualifications

Sound command of English. Participants should be able to participate in discussions in the course and make short presentations in English for the group. Participants should have some knowledge of basic statistical concepts and methods used in official statistical production and dissemination.

Objective(s)

• Present how R can be used for processing, analyzing and disseminating official statistics.
• Introduce the “tidyverse” and how it can be used for data wrangling
• Present ggplot and how it can be used to produce graphs
• Introduce the GSBPM, how it applies to the production of official statistics and linking it to available R libraries and functions.
• Introduce RMarkdown and how to write reports through R

Contents

Online self-study: This course is focused on the implementation of R in the production process within NSI´s. The course is designed to be an online full time self-study course for four days, with one extra day for completing and handing in assignments. 

The course platform is on Eloomi, which will be active over a period of five days, from April 15^th to April 19^th, 2024 (Monday – Friday). During this time, students will watch lectures and work on assignments according to their own schedule. The course leaders will handle the Eloomi registrations. 

Meet the instructors: The course instructors will be available to students in three online meetings throughout the week via Microsoft Teams. Students are also welcome to contact the instructors via e-mail for problem solving and questions on the course. Students are strongly encouraged to seek help from other students and use various web-based sources to complete the assignments.  

Assignments: Students will be required to work on assignments and hand them in via the course platform by the end of the week. The assignments give students the opportunity to acquire hands-on experience with the use of R in the production of official statistics. Students will be required to complete all assignments. Students will not receive a course certificate unless they turn in all assignments.

Content:  

• Introduction to the Generic Statistical Business Process Model
• Introduction to R
• Introduction to the tidyverse and ggplot
• Implementing R in the production process of an NSI
• Using R for processing and analyzing official statistics
  • Data integration, classification and coding
  • Review and validation
  • Editing and imputation
  • Calculate weights and aggregates
• Prepare draft outputs (indices, trends or seasonal adjustments)
• Validate outputs and interpret outputs
• Dissemination
• Disclosure control
• R graphics

Expected Outcome

The course participants will be given an overview of the Generic Statistical Business Process Model and how to apply it to their work in producing official statistics and ensure the quality of the outputs. At the end of the course the participants will be able to:

• Use R in the processing and analyses of official statistics

• Recognize common R functions and how they are used

• Use tidy methods and techniques to write R syntax

• Create reusable code and apply best practices in writing and maintaining code

• Create basic graphs in R using ggplot

• Use available R packages for the production of official statistics

Training Methods

• Recorded lectures with examples and live presentations

• Discussions on different national experiences

• Exercises

Required Reading

No required reading.

Suggested Reading

Students are encouraged to use web-based resources to help them in their assignments, such as:

In English

• https://rafalab.github.io/dsbook/index.html
• https://r4ds.hadley.nz/
• https://style.tidyverse.org/index.html
• https://github.com/SNStatComp/awesome-official-statistics-software
• https://www.tidyverse.org/
• https://statswiki.unece.org/display/GSBPM/GSBPM+v5.1

Required Preparation

All participants must have R and RStudio installed and ready to use on their personal computers. Other packages and solutions will be introduced during the course.

Trainer(s)/
Lecturer(s)

Kristín Ósk Ingvarsdóttir and Þórdís Birna Borgarsdóttir, Statistics Iceland

Timetable

Day 1: Monday, April 15^th 

• Online meeting I: 10:00 CET - Introduction to the course, timetable, and student presentation.  
• Self-study

Day 2: Tuesday, April 16^th

• Self-study
• Students work on the student presentation.

Day 3: Wednesday, April 17^th

• Online meeting II: 10:00 CET - Student presentations on Teams – Your favorite R function!
• Self-study

Day 4: Thursday, April 18^th

• Online meeting III: 10:00 CET – Introduction to R Markdown, Wrapping up
• Self-study

Day 5: Friday, April 19^th  

• The last day for students to complete and submit their assignments on the Eloomi platform. 

Practical Information

When

Duration

Where

Organiser

APPLICATION VIA National Contact Point

15–19.04.2024

5 days

ONLINE

EFTA / Statistics Iceland

Deadline: 18.03.2024