Synopsis

Introductory courses usually teach analysis and plotting with data that is already tidy and ready to import. Real research data rarely arrives that way. It comes with inconsistent formats, missing values, dates in awkward formats, and information split across several files, and getting it into shape often takes several cleaning steps before any analysis can begin. This two-session workshop builds on basic R knowledge and covers the path from messy raw data to a finished, publication-ready figure. Through practical examples, we’ll work through cleaning real-world data and turning simple plots into figures ready for a paper, using the tidyverse and a few extension packages. The focus is on techniques you can apply to your own research data. Both sessions are hands-on, with every explanation followed by an exercise where you write and run code yourself. 

Outcomes

  • Read data from multiple files and combine it into one dataset 
  • Reshape data into a tidy format ready for analysis  
  • Clean up text, dates, and messy column names  
  • Customise ggplot figures with your own themes, colours, labels, and annotations Combine several plots into one figure and export it at publication quality  
  • Example scripts and materials to take away 

    • Packages covered: dplyr, tidyr, stringr, lubridate, janitor, patchwork, ggplot2 

    Requirements

    The “Introduction to Data Analysis with R” workshop, or equivalent familiarity with R, is recommended. You should be able to load data, do basic manipulation with dplyr, and make simple plots with ggplot2. We’ll work in Positron; if you prefer RStudio, that works too, but examples will be shown in Positron.

    Session Dates:

    Tuesday, May 18, 2027 | 17:00–19:00 (Israel Time)
    Sunday, May 23, 2027 | 17:00–19:00  (Israel Time)

    Participation in all sessions is required.

    About the Instructors

    Dr. Selina Baldauf is a theoretical ecologist and scientific programmer at Freie Universität Berlin. She works with researchers on reproducible code, data analysis, and digital workflows, and runs regular workshops and lecture series on scientific tools and workflows. She teaches topics like R, Git, and Obsidian, with a focus on practical skills that fit into an everyday research routine. www.selinabaldauf.com  

    Instructor

    Dr. Selina Baldauf 

    Session Dates:

    Tuesday, May 18, 2027 | 17:00–19:00 
    Sunday, May 23, 2027 | 17:00–19:00 

    Participation in all sessions is required.

    Format

    Online (Zoom)

    Language

    English