Publications by Carlisle Rainey
Labeling the Vertical Axis in R Plots
In response to a recent post (Getting Control of Axes in R Plots), a reader suggests labeling the vertical axis slightly different than normal. Rather than label the axis with vertical text positioned outside the plot area and centered along the axis (as I usually do), Kate suggests placing the label at the top of the axis. In this post, I discus...
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How to Add an Extra Vertical Axis to R Plots
Especially when analyzing time series, we often need plots with two vertical axes. Researchers often expect the two series to \”move together,\” but with different locations and scales. To show that the series move together, you should give each series its own scale. One vertical scale should appear on the left side of the plot and the other ...
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Top Posts of 2012
This has been a great year for my blog. I’ve seen tremendous growth in my subscribers. I look forward to engaging with and learning from my followers in 2013 and I plan to offer valuable content in return. If you’re interested in following along, you can quickly subscribe via RSS or e-mail. I use Google Reader to follow my favorite blogs and ...
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Packages v. Libraries in R
In the past I’ve used the terms “R library” and “R package” synonymously (e.g. this blog post and this paper), but a careful reader has called me out. Mark Sharp notes that there are differences between libraries and packages. Chapter one of the R Manual Writing R Extensions gives the details: A package is a directory of files which...
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What Are Your Favorite Methodology and Statistics Blogs?
I recently searched for a list of the “top statistics blogs” or the “top methodology blogs” and I couldn’t find a recent compilation. This contrasts with visualization blogs, which are relatively easily to find (e.g. top visualization blogs). I’ve decided to initiate the provision of this public good, but would like to draw on others�...
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Software Signals
This blog post by Sean Taylor generated quite a stir. He discussed the signals one sends by using certain software packages and seems to think that R users are more competent. The reactions ranged from amusement to bashing. In defense of hard to learn statistical tools, i.e. #rstats prsm.tc/gyTBRK — JD Long (@CMastication) January 3, 2013 @pri...
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The Problem with Testing for Heteroskedasticity in Probit Models
A friend recently asked whether I trusted the inferences from heteroskedastic probit models. I said no, because the heteroskedastic probit does not allow a researcher to distinguish between non-constant variance and a mis-specified mean function. In particular, my friend had a hypothesis that the variance of the latent outcome (commonly called �...
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