Helpful How-To’s

Some short guides on R, LaTeX, GitHub, and computing tools that come up in political research.

Git and GitHub

  • Use git with GitHub from the command line. PDF
  • Get started on GitHub. PDF
  • Maintain an R package in GitHub. PDF

R

  • Get started with R. PDF
  • Estimate many similar models and plot the coefficients. PDF
  • Install an R package from a .tar.gz file. PDF
  • Send an email using R. PDF
  • Use R and LaTeX to write bulk letters (and scrape APSA eJobs HTML for data!): muRL.

LaTeX

  • Get started with LaTeX. PDF
  • Install and use tinytex for converting .Rmd files to .pdf (without a full TeX download).
  • Sample .tex and compiled .pdf files for slides in LaTeX (Beamer).
  • Include or omit solutions from a LaTeX problem set or exam. PDF
  • Insert BibTeX entries into a CV, syllabus, etc. PDF
  • (Usually) solve pdfLaTeX’s name{Hfootnote.XX} error. PDF
  • Speed up your LaTeX typesetting. PDF

Geographic data and DC

  • Obtain US Census data for Washington, DC tracts in R.
  • Place points within geographic boundaries using R’s point.in.polygon() function, by Alyssa Savo (AU 2019). PDF
  • Use the ggmap package to plot points within Washington, DC, by Tess Harkin (AU 2019). PDF
  • Use the MAR Geocoder to obtain geographic data about Washington, DC addresses, by Eric Brower (AU MPA 2019). PDF