Data analysis

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Part of a series on Statistics

Data visualization

Major dimensions[hide]

 Exploratory data analysis • Information

design
 Interactive data visualization
 Descriptive statistics • Inferential
statistics
 Statistical graphics • Plot
 Data analysis • Infographic
 Data science

Thought leaders[hide]

 John W. Tukey • Edward Tufte

Information graphic types[hide]

 Line chart • Bar chart

 Histogram • Scatterplot
 Boxplot • Pareto chart
 Pie chart • Area chart
 Control chart • Run chart
 Stem-and-leaf display • Cartogram
 Small multiple • Sparkline
 Table

Related Topics[hide]

 Data • Information
 Big data • Database
  Chartjunk • Visual perception
 Regression analysis • Statistical model
 Misleading graph

 V
 T
 E

Analysis of data is a process of inspecting, cleaning, transforming, and

modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information,
suggesting conclusions, and supporting decision-making. Data analysis
has multiple facets and approaches, encompassing diverse techniques
under a variety of names, in different business, science, and social
science domains.
Data mining is a particular data analysis technique that focuses on
modeling and knowledge discovery for predictive rather than purely
descriptive purposes.Business intelligence covers data analysis that
relies heavily on aggregation, focusing on business information.
In statistical applications, some people divide data analysis
into descriptive statistics, exploratory data analysis (EDA),
and confirmatory data analysis (CDA). EDA focuses on discovering new
features in the data and CDA on confirming or falsifying existing
hypotheses. Predictive analytics focuses on application of statistical
models for predictive forecasting or classification, while text
analytics applies statistical, linguistic, and structural techniques to
extract and classify information from textual sources, a species
ofunstructured data. All are varieties of data analysis.
Data integration is a precursor to data analysis, and data analysis is
closely linked to data visualization and data dissemination. The
term data analysis is sometimes used as a synonym for data modeling.
 Contents

 1 The process of data analysis

o 1.1 Data requirements
o 1.2 Data collection
o 1.3 Data processing
o 1.4 Data cleaning
o 1.5 Exploratory data analysis
o 1.6 Modeling and algorithms
o 1.7 Data product
o 1.8 Communication
 2 Quantitative messages
 3 Techniques for analyzing quantitative data
 4 Analytical activities of data users
 5 Barriers to effective analysis
o 5.1 Confusing fact and opinion
o 5.2 Cognitive biases
o 5.3 Innumeracy
 6 Other topics
o 6.1 Analytics and business intelligence
o 6.2 Education
 7 Practitioner notes
o 7.1 Initial data analysis
 7.1.1 Quality of data
 7.1.2 Quality of measurements
 7.1.3 Initial transformations
 7.1.4 Did the implementation of the study fulfill the intentions of
the research design?
 7.1.5 Characteristics of data sample
 7.1.6 Final stage of the initial data analysis
 7.1.7 Analysis
 7.1.8 Nonlinear analysis
o 7.2 Main data analysis
 7.2.1 Exploratory and confirmatory approaches
 7.2.2 Stability of results
  7.2.3 Statistical methods
 8 Free software for data analysis
 9 See also
 10 References
o 10.1 Citations
o 10.2 Bibliography
 11 Further reading
The process of data analysis[edit]

Data science process flowchart

Analysis refers to breaking a whole into its separate components for
individual examination. Data analysis is a process for obtaining raw data
and converting it into information useful for decision-making by users.
Data is collected and analyzed to answer questions, test hypotheses or
disprove theories.[1]
Statistician John Tukey defined data analysis in 1961 as: "Procedures for
analyzing data, techniques for interpreting the results of such
procedures, ways of planning the gathering of data to make its analysis
easier, more precise or more accurate, and all the machinery and results
of (mathematical) statistics which apply to analyzing data."[2]
There are several phases that can be distinguished, described below. The
phases are iterative, in that feedback from later phases may result in
additional work in earlier phases.[3]
Data requirements[edit]
The data necessary as inputs to the analysis are specified based upon the
requirements of those directing the analysis or customers who will use
the finished product of the analysis. The general type of entity upon
which the data will be collected is referred to as an experimental unit
(e.g., a person or population of people). Specific variables regarding a
population (e.g., age and income) may be specified and obtained. Data
may be numerical or categorical (i.e., a text label for numbers).[3]
Data collection[edit]
Data is collected from a variety of sources. The requirements may be
communicated by analysts to custodians of the data, such as information
technology personnel within an organization. The data may also be
collected from sensors in the environment, such as traffic cameras,
satellites, recording devices, etc. It may also be obtained through
interviews, downloads from online sources, or reading documentation.[3]
Data processing[edit]

The phases of the intelligence cycle used to convert raw information into
actionable intelligence or knowledge are conceptually similar to the
phases in data analysis.
Data initially obtained must be processed or organized for analysis. For
instance, this may involve placing data into rows and columns in a table
format for further analysis, such as within a spreadsheet or statistical
software.
Data cleaning
Once processed and organized, the data may be incomplete, contain
duplicates, or contain errors. The need for data cleaning will arise from
problems in the way that data is entered and stored. Data cleaning is the
process of preventing and correcting these errors. Common tasks include
record matching, deduplication, and column segmentation.[4] Such data
problems can also be identified through a variety of analytical
techniques. For example, with financial information, the totals for
particular variables may be compared against separately published
numbers believed to be reliable.[5] Unusual amounts above or below pre-
determined thresholds may also be reviewed. There are several types of
data cleaning that depend on the type of data. Quantitative data methods
for outlier detection can be used to get rid of likely incorrectly entered
data. Textual data spellcheckers can be used to lessen the amount of
mistyped words, but it is harder to tell if the words themselves are
correct.
Exploratory data analysis
Once the data is cleaned, it can be analyzed. Analysts may apply a
variety of techniques referred to as exploratory data analysis to begin
understanding the messages contained in the data.[7][8] The process of
exploration may result in additional data cleaning or additional requests
for data, so these activities may be iterative in nature. Descriptive
statistics such as the average or median may be generated to help
understand the data. Data visualization may also be used to examine the
data in graphical format, to obtain additional insight regarding the
messages within the data.
Modeling and algorithms
Mathematical formulas or models called algorithms may be applied to
the data to identify relationships among the variables, such
as correlation or causation. In general terms, models may be developed
to evaluate a particular variable in the data based on other variable(s) in
the data, with some residual error depending on model accuracy (i.e.,
Data = Model + Error)
Inferential statistics includes techniques to measure relationships
between particular variables. For example, regression analysis may be
used to model whether a change in advertising (independent variable X)
explains the variation in sales (dependent variable Y). In mathematical
terms, Y (sales) is a function of X (advertising). It may be described as
Y = aX + b + error, where the model is designed such that a and b
minimize the error when the model predicts Y for a given range of
values of X. Analysts may attempt to build models that are descriptive of
the data to simplify analysis and communicate results.[1]
Data product
A data product is a computer application that takes data inputs and
generates outputs, feeding them back into the environment. It may be
based on a model or algorithm. An example is an application that
analyzes data about customer purchasing history and recommends other
purchases the customer might enjoy.[3]
Communication

Data visualization to understand the results of a data analysis.

Main article: Data visualization
Once the data is analyzed, it may be reported in many formats to the
users of the analysis to support their requirements. The users may have
feedback, which results in additional analysis. As such, much of the
analytical cycle is iterative.
When determining how to communicate the results, the analyst may
consider data visualization techniques to help clearly and efficiently
communicate the message to the audience. Data visualization
uses information displays such as tables and charts to help communicate
key messages contained in the data. Tables are helpful to a user who
might lookup specific numbers, while charts (e.g., bar charts or line
charts) may help explain the quantitative messages contained in the data.
Quantitative messages
Main article: Data visualization
A time series illustrated with a line chart demonstrating trends in U.S.
federal spending and revenue over time.

A scatterplot illustrating correlation between two variables (inflation and

unemployment) measured at points in time.
Author Stephen Few described eight types of quantitative messages that
users may attempt to understand or communicate from a set of data and
the associated graphs used to help communicate the message. Customers
specifying requirements and analysts performing the data analysis may
consider these messages during the course of the process.

1. Time-series: A single variable is captured over a period of time,

such as the unemployment rate over a 10-year period. A line
chart may be used to demonstrate the trend.
2. Ranking: Categorical subdivisions are ranked in ascending or
descending order, such as a ranking of sales performance
(the measure) by sales persons (the category, with each sales
person a categorical subdivision) during a single period. A bar
chart may be used to show the comparison across the sales
persons.
3. Part-to-whole: Categorical subdivisions are measured as a ratio to
the whole (i.e., a percentage out of 100%). A pie chart or bar chart
can show the comparison of ratios, such as the market share
represented by competitors in a market.
4. Deviation: Categorical subdivisions are compared against a
reference, such as a comparison of actual vs. budget expenses for
several departments of a business for a given time period. A bar
chart can show comparison of the actual versus the reference
amount.
5. Frequency distribution: Shows the number of observations of a
particular variable for given interval, such as the number of years.
 6. in which the stock market return is between intervals such as 0-
10%, 11-20%, etc. A histogram, a type of bar chart, may be used
for this analysis.
7. Correlation: Comparison between observations represented by two
variables (X,Y) to determine if they tend to move in the same or
opposite directions. For example, plotting unemployment (X) and
inflation (Y) for a sample of months. A scatter plot is typically
used for this message.
8. Nominal comparison: Comparing categorical subdivisions in no
particular order, such as the sales volume by product code. A bar
chart may be used for this comparison.
9. Geographic or geospatial: Comparison of a variable across a map
or layout, such as the unemployment rate by state or the number of
persons on the various floors of a building. A cartogram is a
typical graphic used.[10][11]
Techniques for analyzing quantitative data
See also: Problem solving
Author Jonathan Koomey has recommended a series of best practices for
understanding quantitative data. These include:

 Check raw data for anomalies prior to performing your analysis;

 Re-perform important calculations, such as verifying columns of data
that are formula driven;
 Confirm main totals are the sum of subtotals;
 Check relationships between numbers that should be related in a
predictable way, such as ratios over time;
 Normalize numbers to make comparisons easier, such as analyzing
amounts per person or relative to GDP or as an index value relative to
a base year;
 Break problems into component parts by analyzing factors that led to
the results, such as DuPont analysis of return on equity.
For the variables under examination, analysts typically
obtain descriptive statistics for them, such as the mean
(average), median, and standard deviation. They may also analyze
the distribution of the key variables to see how the individual values
cluster around the mean.

An illustration of the MECE principle used for data analysis.

The consultants at McKinsey and Company named a technique for
breaking a quantitative problem down into its component parts called
the MECE principle. Each layer can be broken down into its
components; each of the sub-components must be mutually exclusive of
each other and collectively add up to the layer above them. The
relationship is referred to as "Mutually Exclusive and Collectively
Exhaustive" or MECE. For example, profit by definition can be broken
down into total revenue and total cost. In turn, total revenue can be
analyzed by its components, such as revenue of divisions A, B, and C
(which are mutually exclusive of each other) and should add to the total
revenue (collectively exhaustive).
Analysts may use robust statistical measurements to solve certain
analytical problems. Hypothesis testing is used when a particular
hypothesis about the true state of affairs is made by the analyst and data
is gathered to determine whether that state of affairs is true or false. For
example, the hypothesis might be that "Unemployment has no effect on
inflation", which relates to an economics concept called the Phillips
Curve. Hypothesis testing involves considering the likelihood of Type I
and type II errors, which relate to whether the data supports accepting or
rejecting the hypothesis.
Regression analysis may be used when the analyst is trying to determine
the extent to which independent variable X affects dependent variable Y
(e.g., "To what extent do changes in the unemployment rate (X) affect
the inflation rate (Y)?"). This is an attempt to model or fit an equation
line or curve to the data, such that Y is a function of X.
Analytical activities of data users[edit]
Users may have particular data points of interest within a data set, as
opposed to general messaging outlined above. Such low-level user
analytic activities are presented in the following table. The taxonomy
can also be organized by three poles of activities: retrieving values,
finding data points, and arranging data points.[12][13][14]

General Pro Forma

# Task Examples
Description Abstract

- What is the
Given a set mileage per
What are the values gallon of the
of specific
Retrieve of attributes {X, Y, Audi TT?
1 cases, find
Value Z, ...} in the data
attributes of
cases {A, B, C, ...}? - How long is the
those cases.
movie Gone with
the Wind?
- What Kellogg's
Given some
cereals have
concrete
high fiber?
conditions
on attribute Which data cases - What comedies
2 Filter values, find satisfy conditions have won
data cases {A, B, C...}? awards?
satisfying - Which funds
those underperformed
conditions. the SP-500?
- What is the
Given a set average calorie
of data content of Post
cases, cereals?
What is the value of
Compute compute an
aggregation function - What is the
3 Derived aggregate
F over a given set S gross income of
Value numeric
of data cases? all stores
representatio
combined?
n of those
data cases. - How many
manufacturers of
 cars are there?
- What is the car
with the highest
Find data MPG?
cases - What
possessing director/film has
What are the
an extreme won the most
Find top/bottom N data
4 value of an awards?
Extremum cases with respect to
attribute
attribute A? - What Robin
over its
range within Williams film
the data set. has the most
recent release
date?
Given a set
of data What is the sorted - Order the cars
cases, rank order of a set S of by weight.
5 Sort them data cases according - Rank the
according to to their value of cereals by
some ordinal attribute A? calories.
metric.
- What is the
Given a set
range of film
of data cases
lengths?
and an
What is the range of - What is the
attribute of
Determine values of attribute A range of car
6 interest, find
Range in a set S of data horsepowers?
the span of
cases?
values - What actresses
within the are in the data
set. set?

Given a set - What is the

Characteri of data cases What is the distribution of
ze and a distribution of values carbohydrates in
7
Distributio quantitative of attribute A in a set cereals?
n attribute of S of data cases? - What is the age
interest, distribution of
 characterize shoppers?
the
distribution
of that
attribute’s
values over
the set.
Identify any
anomalies
within a - Are there
given set of exceptions to the
data cases Which data cases in relationship
with respect a set S of data cases between
Find horsepower and
8 to a given have
Anomalies acceleration?
relationship unexpected/exceptio
or nal values? - Are there any
expectation, outliers in
e.g. protein?
statistical
outliers.
- Are there
Given a set groups of cereals
of data Which data cases in w/ similar
cases, find a set S of data cases fat/calories/suga
9 Cluster clusters of are similar in value r?
similar for attributes {X, Y,
- Is there a
attribute Z, ...}?
cluster of typical
values.
film lengths?

Given a set - Is there a

of data cases correlation
and two What is the between
attributes, correlation between carbohydrates
1 and fat?
Correlate determine attributes X and Y
0
useful over a given set S of - Is there a
relationships data cases? correlation
between the between country
values of of origin and
 those MPG?
attributes. - Do different
genders have a
preferred
payment
method?
- Is there a trend
of increasing
film length over
the years?

Barriers to effective analysis[edit]

Barriers to effective analysis may exist among the analysts performing
the data analysis or among the audience. Distinguishing fact from
opinion, cognitive biases, and innumeracy are all challenges to sound
data analysis.
Confusing fact and opinion
You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your
own facts.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Effective analysis requires obtaining relevant facts to answer questions,
support a conclusion or formal opinion, or test hypotheses. Facts by
definition are irrefutable, meaning that any person involved in the
analysis should be able to agree upon them. For example, in August
2010, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that extending
the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 for the 2011-2020 time period would
add approximately $3.3 trillion to the national debt.[15] Everyone should
be able to agree that indeed this is what CBO reported; they can all
examine the report. This makes it a fact. Whether persons agree or
disagree with the CBO is their own opinion.
As another example, the auditor of a public company must arrive at a
formal opinion on whether financial statements of publicly traded
corporations are "fairly stated, in all material respects." This requires
extensive analysis of factual data and evidence to support their opinion.
When making the leap from facts to opinions, there is always the
possibility that the opinion is erroneous.
Cognitive biases
There are a variety of cognitive biases that can adversely effect analysis.
For example, confirmation bias is the tendency to search for or interpret
information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions. In addition,
individuals may discredit information that does not support their views.
Analysts may be trained specifically to be aware of these biases and how
to overcome them. In his book Psychology of Intelligence Analysis,
retired CIA analyst Richards Heuer wrote that analysts should clearly
delineate their assumptions and chains of inference and specify the
degree and source of the uncertainty involved in the conclusions. He
emphasized procedures to help surface and debate alternative points of
view.
Innumeracy
Effective analysts are generally adept with a variety of numerical
techniques. However, audiences may not have such literacy with
numbers or numeracy; they are said to be innumerate. Persons
communicating the data may also be attempting to mislead or
misinform, deliberately using bad numerical techniques.
For example, whether a number is rising or falling may not be the key
factor. More important may be the number relative to another number,
such as the size of government revenue or spending relative to the size
of the economy (GDP) or the amount of cost relative to revenue in
corporate financial statements. This numerical technique is referred to as
normalization or common-sizing. There are many such techniques
employed by analysts, whether adjusting for inflation (i.e., comparing
real vs. nominal data) or considering population increases,
demographics, etc. Analysts apply a variety of techniques to address the
various quantitative messages described in the section above.
Analysts may also analyze data under different assumptions or
scenarios. For example, when analysts perform financial statement
analysis, they will often recast the financial statements under different
assumptions to help arrive at an estimate of future cash flow, which they
then discount to present value based on some interest rate, to determine
the valuation of the company or its stock. Similarly, the CBO analyzes
the effects of various policy options on the government's revenue,
outlays and deficits, creating alternative future scenarios for key
measures.
Other topics
Analytics and business intelligence
Main article:
Analytics is the "extensive use of data, statistical and quantitative
analysis, explanatory and predictive models, and fact-based management
to drive decisions and actions." It is a subset of business intelligence,
which is a set of technologies and processes that use data to understand
and analyze business performance.
Education

Analytic activities of data visualization users

In education, most educators have access to a data system for the
purpose of analyzing student data.These data systems present data to
educators in an over-the-counter data format (embedding labels,
supplemental documentation, and a help system and making key
package/display and content decisions) to improve the accuracy of
educators’ data analyses.
Practitioner note
This section contains rather technical explanations that may assist
practitioners but are beyond the typical scope of a Wikipedia article.
Initial data analysis
The most important distinction between the initial data analysis phase
and the main analysis phase, is that during initial data analysis one
refrains from any analysis that is aimed at answering the original
research question. The initial data analysis phase is guided by the
following four questions:
Quality of data
The quality of the data should be checked as early as possible. Data
quality can be assessed in several ways, using different types of analysis:
frequency counts, descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation,
median), normality (skewness, kurtosis, frequency histograms, n:
variables are compared with coding schemes of variables external to the
data set, and possibly corrected if coding schemes are not comparable.

 Test for common-method variance.

The choice of analyses to assess the data quality during the initial data
analysis phase depends on the analyses that will be conducted in the
main analysis phase.
Quality of measurements
The quality of the measurement instruments should only be checked
during the initial data analysis phase when this is not the focus or
research question of the study. One should check whether structure of
measurement instruments corresponds to structure reported in the
literature.
There are two ways to assess measurement

 Analysis of homogeneity (internal consistency), which gives an

indication of the reliability of a measurement instrument. During this
analysis, one inspects the variances of the items and the scales,
the Cronbach's α of the scales, and the change in the Cronbach's alpha
when an item would be deleted from a scale
Initial transformations
After assessing the quality of the data and of the measurements, one
might decide to impute missing data, or to perform initial
transformations of one or more variables, although this can also be done
during the main analysis phase.
Possible transformations of variables are:
 Square root transformation (if the distribution differs moderately
from normal)
 Log-transformation (if the distribution differs substantially from
normal)
 Inverse transformation (if the distribution differs severely from
normal)
 Make categorical (ordinal / dichotomous) (if the distribution differs
severely from normal, and no transformations help)
Did the implementation of the study fulfill the intentions of the
research design?
One should check the success of the randomization procedure, for
instance by checking whether background and substantive variables are
equally distributed within and across groups.
If the study did not need or use a randomization procedure, one should
check the success of the non-random sampling, for instance by checking
whether all subgroups of the population of interest are represented in
sample.
Other possible data distortions that should be checked are:

 dropout (this should be identified during the initial data analysis

phase)
 Item nonresponse (whether this is random or not should be assessed
during the initial data analysis phase)
 Treatment quality (using manipulation checks).

Characteristics of data sample

In any report or article, the structure of the sample must be accurately
described. It is especially important to exactly determine the structure of
the sample (and specifically the size of the subgroups) when subgroup
analyses will be performed during the main analysis phase.
The characteristics of the data sample can be assessed by looking at:

 Basic statistics of important variables

 Scatter plots
 Correlations and associations
 Cross-tabulations

Final stage of the initial data analysis

During the final stage, the findings of the initial data analysis are
documented, and necessary, preferable, and possible corrective actions
are taken.
Also, the original plan for the main data analyses can and should be
specified in more detail or rewritten.
In order to do this, several decisions about the main data analyses can
and should be made:

 In the case of non-normals: should one transform variables; make

variables categorical (ordinal/dichotomous); adapt the analysis
method?
 In the case of missing data: should one neglect or impute the missing
data; which imputation technique should be used?
 In the case of outliers: should one use robust analysis techniques?
 In case items do not fit the scale: should one adapt the measurement
instrument by omitting items, or rather ensure comparability with
other (uses of the) measurement instrument(s)?
 In the case of (too) small subgroups: should one drop the hypothesis
about inter-group differences, or use small sample techniques, like
exact tests or bootstrapping?
 In case the randomization procedure seems to be defective: can and
should one calculate propensity scores and include them as covariates
in the main analyses?
Analysis
Several analyses can be used during the initial data analysis phase:

 Univariate statistics (single variable)

 Bivariate associations (correlations)
 Graphical techniques (scatter plots)
It is important to take the measurement levels of the variables into
account for the analyses, as special statistical techniques are available
for each level

 Nominal and ordinal variables

 Frequency counts (numbers and percentages)
  Associations
 circumambulations (crosstabulations)
 hierarchical loglinear analysis (restricted to a maximum of 8
variables)
 loglinear analysis (to identify relevant/important variables and
possible confounders)
 Exact tests or bootstrapping (in case subgroups are small)
 Computation of new variables

 Continuous variables
 Distribution
 Statistics (M, SD, variance, skewness, kurtosis)
 Stem-and-leaf displays
 Box plots

Nonlinear analysis
Nonlinear analysis will be necessary when the data is recorded from
a nonlinear system. Nonlinear systems can exhibit complex dynamic
effects including bifurcations, chaos, harmonics and subharmonics that
cannot be analyzed using simple linear methods. Nonlinear data analysis
is closely related to nonlinear system identification.
Main data analysis
In the main analysis phase analyses aimed at answering the research
question are performed as well as any other relevant analysis needed to
write the first draft of the research report.
Exploratory and confirmatory approaches
In the main analysis phase either an exploratory or confirmatory
approach can be adopted. Usually the approach is decided before data is
collected. In an exploratory analysis no clear hypothesis is stated before
analysing the data, and the data is searched for models that describe the
data well. In a confirmatory analysis clear hypotheses about the data are
tested.
Exploratory data analysis should be interpreted carefully. When testing
multiple models at once there is a high chance on finding at least one of
them to be significant, but this can be due to a type 1 error. It is
important to always adjust the significance level when testing multiple
models with, for example, a Bonferroni correction. Also, one should not
follow up an exploratory analysis with a confirmatory analysis in the
same dataset. An exploratory analysis is used to find ideas for a theory,
but not to test that theory as well. When a model is found exploratory in
a dataset, then following up that analysis with a confirmatory analysis in
the same dataset could simply mean that the results of the confirmatory
analysis are due to the same type 1 error that resulted in the exploratory
model in the first place. The confirmatory analysis therefore will not be
more informative than the original exploratory analysis.
Stability of results
It is important to obtain some indication about how generalizable the
results are.While this is hard to check, one can look at the stability of the
results. Are the results reliable and reproducible? There are two main
ways of doing this:

 Cross-validation: By splitting the data in multiple parts we can check

if an analysis (like a fitted model) based on one part of the data
generalizes to another part of the data as well.
 Sensitivity analysis: A procedure to study the behavior of a system or
model when global parameters are (systematically) varied. One way
to do this is with bootstrapping.
Statistical methods
Many statistical methods have been used for statistical analyses. A very
brief list of four of the more popular methods is:

 General linear model: A widely used model on which various

methods are based (e.g. t test, ANOVA, ANCOVA, MANOVA).
Usable for assessing the effect of several predictors on one or more
continuous dependent variables.
 Generalized linear model: An extension of the general linear model
for discrete dependent variables.
 Structural equation modelling: Usable for assessing latent structures
from measured manifest variables.
 Item response theory: Models for (mostly) assessing one latent
variable from several binary measured variables (e.g. an exam).
Free software for data analysis
Data Applied - an online data mining and data visualization solution.

 DevInfo - a database system endorsed by the United Nations

Development Group for monitoring and analyzing human
development.
 ELKI - data mining framework in Java with data mining oriented
visualization functions.
 KNIME - the Konstanz Information Miner, a user friendly and
comprehensive data analytics framework.
 PAW - FORTRAN/C data analysis framework developed at CERN
 DataMelt - a multiplatform (Java-based) data analysis framework
from the jWork.ORG community of developers led by Dr.
S.Chekanov
 R - a programming language and software environment for statistical
computing and graphics.
 ROOT - C++ data analysis framework developed at CERN
 dotplot — cloud based visual designer to create analytic models
 SciPy - A set of Python tools for data analysis
 Statsmodels - a Python module that allows users to explore data,
estimate statistical models, and perform.
 Pandas - A software library written for the Python programming
language for data manipulation and analysis.