The Evolution of R: Growth of the R-Help Mailing List Archives Over Time

• Activity Number: 355
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Graphics
• Author(s): Richard Kwock*+ and Robert E Weiss
• Companies: University of California at Los Angeles and University of California at Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health
• Keywords: R ; graphics ; text mining ; r-help mailing list

Abstract

Since its release 15 years ago, the R statistical software has seen a remarkable expansion over the years in its user base. Alongside with the rapid growth, many new and old statistical methods are used to fit the demand and ever-growing statistical industry. To analyze this growing trend in user activity, we look at text emails sent to the R-help mailing list archives from users all around the world. By text mining logs of emails from the list server archives over the span of its lifetime, we will graphically explore aspects of the R software. This research will explore a few areas of the growth of R and its users, including trending statistical techniques/methods, the growth of the R user base globally, as well as the user support community of the R-help server.