Abstract
Knowledge of statistical software is an important skill for undergraduate sociology students to possess when seeking postgraduation employment; however, formal discussion of which software may be most beneficial to students and appealing to potential employers is lacking. The author’s goal in this teaching note is to provide the strengths and limitations of R, SAS, SPSS, and Stata software in a succinct and nontechnical manner, and discuss how these differences may influence an undergraduate instructor’s consideration of choosing which software is best for his or her statistics or research methods course. On reviewing these differences, the author argues that in most situations SAS would be the preferred software to use in one’s undergraduate course. However, there could be certain situations where R, SPSS, or Stata may be the preferred software. By giving consideration to the differences in these software packages, instructors can make an informed decision as to which is best for their course.
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