{statsExpressions}: Tidy dataframes and expressions with statistical details

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Introduction statsExpressions package logo

The {statsExpressions} package has two key aims:

Statistical packages exhibit substantial diversity in terms of their syntax and expected input type. This can make it difficult to switch from one statistical approach to another. For example, some functions expect vectors as inputs, while others expect dataframes. Depending on whether it is a repeated measures design or not, different functions might expect data to be in wide or long format. Some functions can internally omit missing values, while other functions error in their presence. Furthermore, if someone wishes to utilize the objects returned by these packages downstream in their workflow, this is not straightforward either because even functions from the same package can return a list, a matrix, an array, a dataframe, etc., depending on the function.

This is where {statsExpressions} comes in: It can be thought of as a unified portal through which most of the functionality in these underlying packages can be accessed, with a simpler interface and no requirement to change data format.

This package forms the statistical processing backend for ggstatsplot package.

For more documentation, see the dedicated website.

Installation

Note: This package supports R-devel, the current R release, and the previous R release.

Type Command
Release install.packages("statsExpressions")
Development pak::pak("IndrajeetPatil/statsExpressions")

On Linux, {statsExpressions} installation may require additional system dependencies, which can be checked using:

pak::pkg_sysreqs("statsExpressions")

Citation

The package can be cited as:

citation("statsExpressions")
To cite package 'statsExpressions' in publications use:

  Patil, I., (2021). statsExpressions: R Package for Tidy Dataframes
  and Expressions with Statistical Details. Journal of Open Source
  Software, 6(61), 3236, https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.03236

A BibTeX entry for LaTeX users is

  @Article{,
    doi = {10.21105/joss.03236},
    year = {2021},
    publisher = {{The Open Journal}},
    volume = {6},
    number = {61},
    pages = {3236},
    author = {Indrajeet Patil},
    title = {{statsExpressions: {R} Package for Tidy Dataframes and Expressions with Statistical Details}},
    journal = {{Journal of Open Source Software}},
  }

General workflow

Diagram showing the general workflow of the statsExpressions package

Summary of functionality

Function Analysis Parametric Non-parametric Robust Bayesian
one_sample_test() one-sample test ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
two_sample_test() two-sample test ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
oneway_anova() one-way ANOVA ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
corr_test() correlation ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
contingency_table() one- or two-way contingency table ✅ ✅ ❌ ✅
meta_analysis() random-effects meta-analysis ✅ ❌ ✅ ✅
pairwise_comparisons() pairwise group comparisons ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
centrality_description() centrality and distribution ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅

❌ means that no dedicated analysis of that type exists. For contingency tables, type = "nonparametric" and type = "robust" both use the same frequentist tests as type = "parametric".

pairwise_contingency_table() provides pairwise Fisher’s exact tests with Cramer’s V effect sizes. It does not have a type argument.

Tidy dataframes from statistical analysis

To illustrate the simplicity of this syntax, let’s say we want to run a one-way ANOVA. If we first run a non-parametric ANOVA and then decide to run a robust ANOVA instead, the syntax remains the same and the statistical approach can be modified by changing a single argument:

mtcars |> oneway_anova(cyl, wt, type = "nonparametric")
#> # A tibble: 1 × 15
#>   parameter1 parameter2 statistic df.error   p.value
#>   <chr>      <chr>          <dbl>    <int>     <dbl>
#> 1 wt         cyl             22.8        2 0.0000112
#>   method                       effectsize      estimate conf.level conf.low
#>   <chr>                        <chr>              <dbl>      <dbl>    <dbl>
#> 1 Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test Epsilon2 (rank)    0.736       0.95    0.624
#>   conf.high conf.method          conf.iterations n.obs expression
#>       <dbl> <chr>                          <int> <int> <list>    
#> 1         1 percentile bootstrap             100    32 <language>

mtcars |> oneway_anova(cyl, wt, type = "robust")
#> # A tibble: 1 × 12
#>   statistic    df df.error p.value
#>       <dbl> <dbl>    <dbl>   <dbl>
#> 1      12.7     2     12.2 0.00102
#>   method                                           
#>   <chr>                                            
#> 1 A heteroscedastic one-way ANOVA for trimmed means
#>   effectsize                         estimate conf.level conf.low conf.high
#>   <chr>                                 <dbl>      <dbl>    <dbl>     <dbl>
#> 1 Explanatory measure of effect size     1.05       0.95    0.843      1.50
#>   n.obs expression
#>   <int> <list>    
#> 1    32 <language>

Worked examples of output data frames are collected here: https://www.indrapatil.com/statsExpressions/articles/web_only/dataframe_outputs.html

The columns and attributes of these dataframes are documented here: https://www.indrapatil.com/statsExpressions/articles/web_only/return_value_schema.html

Needless to say this will also work with the kable function to generate a table:

set.seed(123)

# one-sample robust t-test
# we will leave `expression` column out; it's not needed for using only the dataframe
mtcars |>
  one_sample_test(wt, test.value = 3, type = "robust") |>
  dplyr::select(-expression) |>
  knitr::kable()
statistic p.value n.obs method effectsize estimate conf.level conf.low conf.high
1.179181 0.275 32 Bootstrap-t method for one-sample test Trimmed mean 3.197 0.95 2.854246 3.539754

These functions are also compatible with other popular data manipulation packages.

For example, let’s say we want to run a one-sample t-test for all levels of a certain grouping variable. We can use dplyr to do so:

# for reproducibility
set.seed(123)
library(dplyr)

# grouped operation
# running one-sample test for all levels of grouping variable `cyl`
mtcars |>
  group_by(cyl) |>
  group_modify(~ one_sample_test(.x, wt, test.value = 3), .keep = TRUE) |>
  ungroup()
#> # A tibble: 3 × 16
#>     cyl    mu statistic df.error  p.value method            alternative
#>   <dbl> <dbl>     <dbl>    <dbl>    <dbl> <chr>             <chr>      
#> 1     4     3    -4.16        10 0.00195  One Sample t-test two.sided  
#> 2     6     3     0.870        6 0.418    One Sample t-test two.sided  
#> 3     8     3     4.92        13 0.000278 One Sample t-test two.sided  
#>   effectsize estimate conf.level conf.low conf.high conf.method
#>   <chr>         <dbl>      <dbl>    <dbl>     <dbl> <chr>      
#> 1 Hedges' g    -1.16        0.95   -1.88     -0.402 ncp        
#> 2 Hedges' g     0.286       0.95   -0.388     0.937 ncp        
#> 3 Hedges' g     1.24        0.95    0.544     1.91  ncp        
#>   conf.distribution n.obs expression
#>   <chr>             <int> <list>    
#> 1 t                    11 <language>
#> 2 t                     7 <language>
#> 3 t                    14 <language>

Using expressions in custom plots

Note that expression here means a pre-formatted in-text statistical result. In addition to other details contained in the dataframe, there is also a column titled expression, which contains expression with statistical details and can be displayed in a plot.

For all statistical test expressions, the default template attempts to follow the gold standard for statistical reporting.

For example, here are results from Welch’s t-test:

Example of statistical reporting format showing Welch's t-test results with test statistic, degrees of freedom, p-value, and effect size

Let’s load the needed library for visualization:

library(ggplot2)

Expressions for centrality measure

Note that when used in a geometric layer, the expression needs to be parsed.

# displaying mean for each level of `cyl`
centrality_description(mtcars, cyl, wt) |>
  ggplot(aes(cyl, wt)) +
  geom_point() +
  geom_label(aes(label = expression), parse = TRUE)

Example ggplot showing centrality_description output: mean wt by cyl with labeled statistical expressions.

Here are a few examples for supported analyses.

Expressions for one-way ANOVAs

The returned data frame will always have a column called expression.

Assuming there is only a single result you need to display in a plot, to use it in a plot, you have two options:

For several row-specific labels in a geometric layer, map expression to label and use parse = TRUE, as in the centrality example above.

Between-subjects design

set.seed(123)
library(ggridges)

results_data <- oneway_anova(iris, Species, Sepal.Length, type = "robust")

# create a ridgeplot
ggplot(iris, aes(x = Sepal.Length, y = Species)) +
  geom_density_ridges() +
  labs(
    title = "A heteroscedastic one-way ANOVA for trimmed means",
    subtitle = results_data$expression[[1]]
  )

Example ridge density plot for a heteroscedastic one-way ANOVA on Sepal.Length by Species

Within-subjects design

set.seed(123)
library(WRS2)
library(ggbeeswarm)

results_data <- oneway_anova(
  WineTasting,
  Wine,
  Taste,
  paired = TRUE,
  subject.id = Taster,
  type = "np"
)

ggplot(WineTasting, aes(Wine, Taste, color = Wine)) +
  geom_quasirandom() +
  labs(
    title = "Friedman's rank sum test",
    subtitle = parse(text = results_data$expression)
  )

Quasirandom dot plot of wine taste ratings by wine type with Friedman's rank sum test subtitle

Expressions for two-sample tests

Between-subjects design

set.seed(123)

results_data <- two_sample_test(ToothGrowth, supp, len)

ggplot(ToothGrowth, aes(supp, len)) +
  geom_boxplot() +
  labs(
    title = "Two-Sample Welch's t-test",
    subtitle = parse(text = results_data$expression)
  )

Boxplot of ToothGrowth data with Two-Sample Welch's t-test expression in the subtitle

Within-subjects design

set.seed(123)
library(tidyr)
library(PairedData)
data(PrisonStress)

# get data in tidy format
df <- pivot_longer(PrisonStress, starts_with("PSS"), names_to = "PSS", values_to = "stress")

results_data <- two_sample_test(
  data = df,
  x = PSS,
  y = stress,
  paired = TRUE,
  subject.id = Subject,
  type = "np"
)

# plot
suppressWarnings(paired.plotProfiles(
  PrisonStress, "PSSbefore", "PSSafter",
  subjects = "Subject"
)) +
  labs(
    title = "Two-sample Wilcoxon paired test",
    subtitle = parse(text = results_data$expression)
  )

Example paired profiles plot for a two-sample Wilcoxon paired test

Expressions for one-sample tests

set.seed(123)

# dataframe with results
results_data <- one_sample_test(mtcars, wt, test.value = 3, type = "bayes")

# creating a histogram plot
ggplot(mtcars, aes(wt)) +
  geom_histogram(alpha = 0.5) +
  geom_vline(xintercept = mean(mtcars$wt), color = "red") +
  labs(subtitle = parse(text = results_data$expression))

Histogram of car weights with a vertical line at the mean and Bayesian one-sample t-test subtitle

Expressions for correlation analysis

Let’s look at another example where we want to run correlation analysis:

set.seed(123)

# dataframe with results
results_data <- corr_test(mtcars, mpg, wt, type = "nonparametric")

# create a scatter plot
ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, wt)) +
  geom_point() +
  geom_smooth(method = "lm", formula = y ~ x) +
  labs(
    title = "Spearman's rank correlation coefficient",
    subtitle = parse(text = results_data$expression)
  )

Scatterplot of car fuel efficiency (mpg) versus weight (wt) with linear fit and Spearman correlation expression

Expressions for contingency table analysis

For categorical/nominal data - one-sample:

set.seed(123)

# dataframe with results
results_data <- contingency_table(
  as.data.frame(table(mpg$class)),
  Var1,
  counts = Freq,
  type = "bayes"
)

# create a pie chart
ggplot(as.data.frame(table(mpg$class)), aes(x = "", y = Freq, fill = factor(Var1))) +
  geom_bar(width = 1, stat = "identity") +
  theme(axis.line = element_blank()) +
  # cleaning up the chart and adding results from one-sample proportion test
  coord_polar(theta = "y", start = 0) +
  labs(
    fill = "Class",
    x = NULL,
    y = NULL,
    title = "Pie Chart of class (type of car)",
    caption = parse(text = results_data$expression)
  )

Pie chart of car classes showing example output with statistical caption

You can also use these functions to get the expression in return without having to display them in plots:

set.seed(123)

# Pearson's chi-squared test of independence
contingency_table(mtcars, am, vs)$expression[[1]]
#> list(chi["Pearson"]^2 * "(" * 1 * ")" == "0.91", italic(p) == 
#>     "0.34", widehat(italic("V"))["Cramer"] == "0.00", CI["95%"] ~ 
#>     "[" * "0.00", "0.49" * "]", italic("n")["obs"] == "32")

Expressions for meta-analysis

set.seed(123)
library(metaviz)

# dataframe with results
results_data <- meta_analysis(dplyr::rename(mozart, estimate = d, std.error = se))

# meta-analysis forest plot with results random-effects meta-analysis
suppressWarnings(viz_forest(
  x = mozart[, c("d", "se")],
  study_labels = mozart[, "study_name"],
  xlab = "Cohen's d",
  variant = "thick",
  type = "cumulative"
)) +
  labs(
    title = "Meta-analysis of Pietschnig, Voracek, and Formann (2010) on the Mozart effect",
    subtitle = parse(text = results_data$expression)
  ) +
  theme(text = element_text(size = 12))

Meta-analysis forest plot of the Mozart effect example, showing study estimates and the overall random-effects result.

Customizing details to your liking

Sometimes you may not wish to include so many details in the subtitle. In that case, you can extract the expression and copy-paste only the part you wish to include. For example, here only statistic and p-values are included:

set.seed(123)

# extracting detailed expression
(res_expr <- oneway_anova(iris, Species, Sepal.Length, var.equal = TRUE)$expression[[1]])
#> list(italic("F")["Fisher"](2, 147) == "119.26", italic(p) == 
#>     "1.67e-31", widehat(omega["p"]^2) == "0.61", CI["95%"] ~ 
#>     "[" * "0.53", "1.00" * "]", italic("n")["obs"] == "150")

# adapting the details to your liking
ggplot(iris, aes(x = Species, y = Sepal.Length)) +
  geom_boxplot() +
  labs(subtitle = ggplot2::expr(paste(
    NULL, italic("F"), "(", "2", ",", "147", ") = ", "119.26", ", ",
    italic("p"), " = ", "1.67e-31"
  )))

Example ggplot boxplot of iris Sepal.Length by Species with a custom statistical expression subtitle

Tests and effect sizes

See Test and effect size details for the methods, effect sizes, and underlying functions used by each analysis. The same method tables are included in the individual function help pages.

Usage in {ggstatsplot}

Note that these functions were initially written to display results from statistical tests on ready-made {ggplot2} plots implemented in {ggstatsplot}.

For detailed documentation, see the package website: https://www.indrapatil.com/ggstatsplot/

Here is an example from {ggstatsplot} of what the plots look like when the expressions are displayed in the subtitle-

Example plot from ggstatsplot package showing statistical results in subtitle

Acknowledgments

The hexsticker and the schematic illustration of general workflow were generously designed by Sarah Otterstetter (Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin).