Public Policy Analytics: Code & Context for Data Science in Government teaches readers how to address complex public policy problems with data and analytics using reproducible methods in R. Each of the eight chapters provides a detailed case study, showing readers: how to develop exploratory indicators; understand ‘spatial process’ and develop spatial analytics; how to develop ‘useful’ predictive analytics; how to convey these outputs to non-technical decision-makers through the medium of data visualization; and why, ultimately, data science and ‘Planning’ are one and the same. A graduate-level introduction to data science, this book will appeal to researchers and data scientists at the intersection of data analytics and public policy, as well as readers who wish to understand how algorithms will affect the future of government.

R and Data Mining introduces researchers, post-graduate students, and analysts to data mining using R, a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. The book provides practical methods for using R in applications from academia to industry to extract knowledge from vast amounts of data. Readers will find this book a valuable guide to the use of R in tasks such as classification and prediction, clustering, outlier detection, association rules, sequence analysis, text mining, social network analysis, sentiment analysis, and more.Data mining techniques are growing in popularity in a broad range of areas, from banking to insurance, retail, telecom, medicine, research, and government. This book focuses on the modeling phase of the data mining process, also addressing data exploration and model evaluation.With three in-depth case studies, a quick reference guide, bibliography, and links to a wealth of online resources, R and Data Mining is a valuable, practical guide to a powerful method of analysis. - Presents an introduction into using R for data mining applications, covering most popular data mining techniques - Provides code examples and data so that readers can easily learn the techniques - Features case studies in real-world applications to help readers apply the techniques in their work

The OpenIntro project was founded in 2009 to improve the quality and availability of education by producing exceptional books and teaching tools that are free to use and easy to modify. We feature real data whenever possible, and files for the entire textbook are freely available at openintro.org. Visit our website, openintro.org. We provide free videos, statistical software labs, lecture slides, course management tools, and many other helpful resources.

Now in its second edition, this book focuses on practical algorithms for mining data from even the largest datasets.

This straightforward and effective how-to guide provides the basics for any reporter or journalism student beginning to use data for news stories. It has step-by-step instructions on how to do basic data analysis in journalism while addressing why these digital tools should be an integral part of reporting in the 21st century. In an ideal core text for courses on data-driven journalism or computer-assisted reporting, Houston emphasizes that journalists are accountable for the accuracy and relevance of the data they acquire and share. With a refreshed design, this updated new edition includes expanded coverage on social media, scraping data from the web, and text-mining, and provides journalists with the tips and tools they need for working with data.

A comprehensive textbook on data analysis for business, applied economics and public policy that uses case studies with real-world data.

Applied Predictive Modeling covers the overall predictive modeling process, beginning with the crucial steps of data preprocessing, data splitting and foundations of model tuning. The text then provides intuitive explanations of numerous common and modern regression and classification techniques, always with an emphasis on illustrating and solving real data problems. The text illustrates all parts of the modeling process through many hands-on, real-life examples, and every chapter contains extensive R code for each step of the process. This multi-purpose text can be used as an introduction to predictive models and the overall modeling process, a practitioner’s reference handbook, or as a text for advanced undergraduate or graduate level predictive modeling courses. To that end, each chapter contains problem sets to help solidify the covered concepts and uses data available in the book’s R package. This text is intended for a broad audience as both an introduction to predictive models as well as a guide to applying them. Non-mathematical readers will appreciate the intuitive explanations of the techniques while an emphasis on problem-solving with real data across a wide variety of applications will aid practitioners who wish to extend their expertise. Readers should have knowledge of basic statistical ideas, such as correlation and linear regression analysis. While the text is biased against complex equations, a mathematical background is needed for advanced topics.