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Advanced Courses on Life Sciences

Course – 1st Edition

Building Better Graphs with R: ggplot2 and base

November 5th-9th, 2018, Barcelona (Spain)

Statistics and Bioinformatics

Statistics and Bioinformatics

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Course Building Better Graphs with R- ggplot2 and baseCourse Overview

The goal of this course is to train students to create publication-quality graphics in R.

The course will emphasize the relationships between data structure and graphical elements so students can apply what they learn to other R package extensions not covered in the course.  A mix of lectures and in-class exercises provide a thorough overview of two primary graphics packages in R: base and ggplot2.

In addition to plot customization basics (e.g., color, symbology), students will learn more advanced data visualization techniques (e.g., multiple axes, insets, transformations).  The final day of the course is dedicated to guided practice;  students may work with their own data or choose from our set of example projects.

Learning Outcomes

  • Customize code from base and ggplot2 packages
  • Apply the “Grammar of Graphics” system underlying ggplot2
  • Manage data structure with dplyr and tidyr to facilitate graphing
  • Write functions to automate data preparation and generate graphics
  • Transform default graphics into beautiful, customized, publication-quality graphics

REQUIREMENTS

Previous completion of an Introduction to R course and/or some experience using R is required.

Students must bring their own laptops with current versions of R (v3.4.3) and R Studio (v1.1.423) installed.  We also recommend students pre-install the following packages: ggplot2, tidyr, dplyr, lubridate, scales, forcats, and sf.

Contact

courses@transmittingscience.com

LOCATION

DATE

November 5th-9th, 2018

LANGUAGE

English

COURSE LENGTH & ECTS

35 hours on-site.

This course is equivalent to 2 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) at the Life Science Zurich Graduate School.

The recognition of ECTS by other institutions depends on each university or school.

PLACES

Places are limited to 20 participants and will be occupied by strict registration order.

Participants who have completed the course will receive a certificate at the end of it.

Ashton Drew instructor for Transmitting Science

Dr. Ashton Drew
KDV Decision Analysis LLC
United States of America

Sheila Shaia instructor for Transmitting Science

Dr. Sheila Saia
United States Forest Service Center for Integrated Forest Science
United States of America

Soledad De Esteban-Trivigno Transmitting Science coordinator

Dr. Soledad De Esteban-Trivigno

Transmitting Science

Ana Rosa Gomez-Cano coordinator at Transmitting Science

Dr. Ana Rosa Gómez Cano
Transmitting Science

Program

Monday, November 5th, 2018. R Review and Introduction to Graphing in R.

  • Quick review of R and R Studio.
  • High-level overview of graphing in R.
    • Principles of good graphic design.
    • Descriptions of main graphic packages in R.
    • Data structure and graph design.

Tuesday, November 6th, 2018. Base graphics.

  • Modifying base graphics.
    • Data style (color, shape, line type, etc.).
    • Text (add/remove text elements, change text font).
    • Structure (layer plots, arrange multiple plots on page).

Wednesday, November 7th, 2018. Basic ggplot2 graphics.

  • Introduction to elements of a plot per the “Grammar of Graphics”
    • Aesthetic mapping, geometries, coordinates
    • Groups and facets
    • Scales and guides
  • Data structure and data management tips
    • Using dplyr and tidyr to prepare data for ggplot2
    • Organizing structure of ggplot2 functions

Thursday, November 8th, 2018. Advanced ggplot2 tasks.

  • Common advanced features of publication-quality graphics.
    • Applying user-defined statistics.
    • Incorporating multiple axes (e.g., time series of temperature and precipitation).
    • Managing complex legends and other text annotations.
    • Fine tuning thematic elements.
  • Helpful tips to automate and standardize plot construction.
  • Extensions and add-on packages for base and ggplot2.

Friday, November 9th, 2018. Guided practice.

  • The last day of this course will emphasize hands-on practice coding publication-quality graphics.  Instructors will provide datasets and associated exercises designed to give students more practice at building base and ggplot2 graphics.  Exercises will include examples from a range of biological and environmental fields.   Alternatively, students may choose to work with their own data to practice designing and building graphs specific to their research projects.

Fees

  • Course Fee
  • Early bird (until December 31st, 2019):
  • 492 € *
    (393.60 € for Ambassador Institutions)
  • Regular (after December 31st, 2019):
  • 620 € *
    (476 € for Ambassador Institutions)
  • This includes course material, coffee breaks and lunches (VAT included).
    * Participants from companies/industry will have an extra charge of 100 €.

You can check the list of Ambassador Institutions. If you want your institution to become a Transmitting Science Ambassador please contact us at communication@transmittingscience.com

Schedule

  • Monday to Friday:
    • 9:30 to 13:30 Lessons.
    • 13:30 to 15:00 Lunch (included).
    • 15:00 to 18:00 Lessons.

The class schedule is approximate; it is possible that the content of one day may run into the next and a working day may be longer than advertised.

Accomodation

The course will take place in the city of Sabadell, Barcelona (Spain). Take a look at the venue.

You may stay in Barcelona city or Sabadell. You will find information about Hotels and Hostel in Sabadell here. It takes about 45 minutes by public transport to arrive to Sabadell from the centre of Barcelona city. The place of the course is about 15 minutes walking from the train stop.

Funding

Discounts are not cumulative and apply only on the Course Fee. We offer the possibility of paying in two instalments (contact courses@transmittingscience.com).

Former participants will have a 5 % discount on the Course Fee.

20 % discount on the Course Fee is offered for members of some organizations (Ambassador Institutions). If you want to apply to this discount please indicate it in the Registration form (proof will be asked later).

Unemployed scientists living in the country were the course will be held, as well as PhD students based in that country without any grant or scholarship to develop their PhD, could benefit from a 40 % discount on the Course Fee. If you want to ask for this discount, please contact the course coordinator. That would apply for a maximum of 2 places and they will be covered by strict inscription order.