rempsyc: Convenience functions for psychology

Abstract

{rempsyc} is an R package of convenience functions that make the analysis-to-publication workflow faster, easier, and less error-prone. It enables the creation of publication-ready APA (American Psychological Association) tables exportable to Word (via {flextable}) and easily customizable APA-compliant plots (via {ggplot2}). It makes it easy to run statistical tests, check assumptions, and automate various tasks common in psychology research and social sciences more broadly. Statement of need There are many reasons to use R (R Core Team, 2022) for analyzing and reporting data from research studies, such as being compatible with the ideals of open science (Quintana, 2020). However, R has a major downside for novices: its steep learning curve due to its programmatic interface, in contrast to perhaps more user-friendly point-and-click software. Of course, this flexibility is also a strength, as the R community can and does come together to produce packages that make using R increasingly easier and more user-friendly (e.g., the easystats ecosystem Lüdecke et al., 2019/2023). The {rempsyc} package (Really Easy Methods for Psychology) contributes to this momentum by providing convenience functions that remove as much friction as possible between your script and your manuscript (in particular, if you are using Microsoft Word). There are mainly three things that go into a manuscript: text, tables, and figures. {rempsyc} does not generate publication-ready text summarizing analyses; for this, see the {report} package (Makowski et al., 2021/2023). Instead, {rempsyc} focuses on the production of publication-ready tables and figures. Below, I go over a few quick examples of those. Examples Features Publication-Ready Tables Many researchers using R still copy-paste the values from the R console to their manuscript, or retype them manually. Yet, this approach increases the risks of copy-paste and retyping errors so common in psychology. This problem is not trivial given that according to some estimates, up to 50% of articles in psychology have at least one statistical error (Nuijten et al., 2016). Ideally, one should be able to format the table directly in R, and to export it to Word directly. Formatting a table properly in R is already a tedious and time-consuming task, but fortunately several packages take care of this step (e.g., the {broom} or {report} packages, Makowski et al., 2021/2023; Robinson et al., 2022, and there are several others). Exporting these formatted tables to Microsoft Word remains a challenge however. Some packages do export to Word (e.g., the {apaTables} package Stanley & Spence, 2018), but their formatting is often rigid especially when using analyzes or table formats that are not supported by default. Thériault. (2023). rempsyc: Convenience functions for psychology. Journal of Open Source Software, 8(87), 5466. https://doi.org/10.21105/joss. 05466.