Many authors have called R the future of statistical analyses.  R is an open-source statistics program, which allows users to develop their own commands for the program itself.  This has two particularly noteworthy benefits: First, whenever a new statistical breakthrough is made, researchers can immediately create an associated command in R to perform the analysis.  This allows new findings to be disseminated more quickly.  Second, if a prior command in R is confusing or incorrect, anyone can create a new command for the same analysis that is easier to use or correct.  While users are limited by the decisions of the program creator(s) for other statistics programs, R has no such limitations.

So what is the first step to using R?  Downloading it!  The current guide is a brief explanation to downloading R.  If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at MHoward@SouthAlabama.edu.  I would be happy to help you out.

To find the correct website to download R, you can search Google for the term “R”.  Or, you can just click on the following link: https://www.r-project.org/ .  While the homepage looks woefully outdated, I ensure you that it is the correct website.

On this page, you should click on the link that says “CRAN” below the word “Download,” as seen in the picture below.

On the next page, you should select the mirror that you want to download from.  For most readers, you can either click on one of the two 0-Cloud mirrors or scroll down to the USA section.  I used the Dallas, TX mirror when I downloaded R.  To completely follow the current guide, click on the link shown in the picture below:

Now, we just click on “Download R for Windows,” as seen below:

Then click on “base,” again as seen below:

And then finally, click on “Download R 3.4.3 for Windows” (seen below).  In future updates to R, this number may be different, but it should have a similar download process.

Once the file has downloaded, just open the correct folder and double-click it.  The install process should be straightforward, but feel free to email me at MHoward@SouthAlabama.edu if you have any questions about it.  Otherwise, enjoy using R and look for other guides about running R commands on MattCHoward.com!