On Fri, Aug 17, 2012 at 6:46 AM, Travis Perry <travis.perry at furman.edu> wrote:
Dr. Bates,
Our department is considering replacing existing statistical
software packages in our curriculum with R, at my request. To better inform
this decision we are interested to know the prevalence of R in the published
literature and its use across academic and research institutions. I have so
far been unable to find satisfactory information on the subject. Any
information you could provide would be much appreciated.
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.
best,
--
Travis Perry
Associate Professor of Biology
Department of Biology
Furman University
3300 Poinsett Highway
Greenville, SC 29613
Senior Research Associate
Rhodes University
Grahamstown, South Africa
Cell (864)-561-4240
Because R is an Open Source system which is freely distributed and may be freely redistributed there is no way of keeping track of the downloads and its use in academic and research institutions. Searching for "R statistics" at a book site such as amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com should produce enough hits to convince your colleagues of an active development community. On scholar.google.com the system itself has been cited 3782 times and the initial paper on the system by Ihaka and Gentleman has been cited over 6000 times. Others on the R-help list may be able to give more information regarding the use of R in the biological sciences.