Starting data analysis is hard and daunting- but for me it was also one of my favourite parts of the PhD process. I get excited by data, like to the point that when UberEats releases their yearly data wrap-up I get super excited, perhaps lame I know!
Although, I am most definitely not a statistician I wanted to share my tips for where to start with data analysis.
1) Get a coffee- Step one is important and should not be forgotten. Make yourself a big coffee, sit down, and get in the stats zone.
2) Print out what you need- I think the best place to start is to print out all of your helpful notes. Your survey, how to score your scales, and any methodology notes you have made. Also have a notebook handy for scribbling.
3) Write down everything you do- Write down every little tiny step that you do. Either in your notebook or in your methods section. This not only makes writing your method section easier, it also makes solving any issues that arise less painful.
4) Make lots of copies of your data- Make lots of different versions of your data – recoded version, cleaned version, version just for qualitative data, etc. This way your original data stays original in case you need to go back and solve problems or rerun analyses.
5) Laerds! Laerd statistics and I are #BFF
6) Another coffee- Coffee. Stats. Coffee. Repeat.
Comment
Great advice, thank you! And oh Laerd looks like an amazing resource…