A Five-Day National Workshop Sponsored by ICSSR – ERC on R in Social Sciences

Name of the Activity: R in Social Sciences – A Comprehensive Roadmap to Research and Practical Implementation
Type of Activity: 5-day National Workshop sponsored by ICSSR – ERC
Duration of Activity: 8th to 12th August 2023
Time: 10am to 5pm
Resource Persons:
1. Prof.  Amalendu Bhunia, Vice Chancellor & Professor of Commerce, University of Kalyani
2. Dr. Sumanta Dutta, Post Graduate & Research, Department of Commerce, St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata
3. Dr. Neelanjan Sircar, Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research and Assistant Professor, Ashoka University
4. Mr. Sabir Ahamed, National Research Coordinator, Pratichi Trust

No. of Participants: 41 including 16 participants from different colleges, institutions and universities.

Objective of the workshop: The workshop was primarily organized with the following objectives in mind:

• Familiarise participants with research methodology and ethical considerations of research.
• Introduce participants to R packages relevant to their field of interest, particularly in commerce, economics and other social science.
• Provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of R and its capabilities for data analysis.
• Equip participants with essential skills to handle, clean, manipulate, analyse and visualise data using R.
• Familiarise participants with statistical techniques and inferential testing using R.
• Enable participants to apply R to real-world datasets and problems.

 

Brief description of the event:
The workshop on R in Social Sciences – A Comprehensive Roadmap to Research and Practical Implementation was a five-day workshop organized at the Bhawanipur Education Society College premises at 5 LLR Sarani, Kolkata 700020. The event was organized by the Department of Commerce UG (Afternoon & Evening Section) & PG and the Department of Economics in collaboration with the IQAC of the college. The workshop focused on two distinct areas – (i) research methodology and ethics, (ii) hands on training in R language.
After a brief inaugural session on the 5th of August 2023, the first plenary session on Introduction to Research Methodology commenced. The session was conducted by Prof. (Dr.) Amalendu Bhunia, VC, University of Kalyani. Prof. Bhunia deliberated on the things to be considered while embarking on any research in social sciences. He emphasized the importance of drafting a relevant research question and formulating the research hypothesis. He then moved onto the steps to be considered while preparing the research design and carrying through with the research whilst never losing sight of the underlying research philosophy. The second plenary session of Day 1, was on Ethics in Research. The session was conducted by Dr. Sumanta Dutta, Assistant Professor, Post Graduate and Research Department of Commerce (M. Com.) St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. He started his session by deliberating on the UGC guidelines GARP (Good Academic Research Practices 2020). Dr Dutta then expounded on Creative Commons and its types, different forms of Plagiarism recognised amongst academia and the plagiarism policy of the UGC. He ended his discussions by expanding on the issues of self-citation, cloned journals, crony journals and predatory/shoddy journals.

Day 2 onwards the focus of the workshop shifted to hands-on training on R language in the computer laboratory that can accommodate around 45 people. The two sessions on 9th August were jointly conducted by Dr. Neelanjan Sircar, Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research and Assistant Professor, Ashoka University and Mr. Sabir Ahamed, National Research Coordinator, Pratichi Trust. During the first Technical Session – Introduction to R, Mr Ahamed deliberated on the uses of R language and helped the participants download and install R and R Studio in their computers. He then proceeded to teach the basic R commands through a pre-designed R workbook that was shared with all participants. In the second technical session – Practical (Hands-on) session, Dr Neelanjan Sircar deliberated on the basics of data visualization through scatter plot and histogram. He further expounded on the use of various R tools like names, head, tail, str, glimpse, combine tools, making of subsets, etc.

The structure of the second day, set the tone for the format to be followed during the rest of the days of the workshop. Hence, on Day 3, i.e., on 10th August 2023, Mr Ahamad started the morning session by teaching how to create CSV files on R and then moved on to data visualisation through ggplot, ggplyr and others; use of pipe connectors; filtering of data and creation of new data sets; and importance of help option on R. during the afternoon session, Dr Sircar taught the use of functions like function, sapply, sq and loops; making custom graphs and some more data visualisation.

On Day 4, the pre-lunch session was dedicated to using R for simulations, t-test in R through a few practical exercises and understanding the use of R in proving or disproving hypotheses. Following Mr Ahamed’s session, Dr Sircar in the post lunch session introduced linear regression in R, use of summary tools and frequency functions in R.

On the final day of the workshop, Mr. Ahamed engaged the participants in a hands-on exercise on the applications in Data Modelling through use of summary tools, textual analysis and sentiment analysis with tidytext, re-coding of variables in a dataset, etc. He further deliberated on the resources available online that can help in the extensive use of R in research work. This final session was followed by an assessment on research methodology and ethics, that was administered through a google form. The scores of this assessment were released immediately on submission of the form. Feedback was also taken from the participants through the circulation of another google form. The chief guest of the valedictory session was Dr. Saibal Kar, RBI Chair Professor of Industrial Economics, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata and director (Hony), ICSSR-ERC. In his speech Dr. Kar dwelt on Challenges for Social Science Research in India. His speech was illustrated with actual challenges faced by him and others while conducting research in India. The session ended with a vote of thanks delivered by Mr. Saspo Chakraborty, Vice Principal, Department of Commerce (Afternoon and evening Section), the BES College.

Outcome of the event:
The expected outcomes of the workshop were that the participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of R’s capabilities and will be able to handle, manipulate, and analyze data effectively. They will be able to develop proficiency in using R functions, packages, and techniques for data exploration, transformation, and cleaning. Participants will learn how to apply statistical techniques and perform inferential testing using R and will acquire skills in creating visually appealing data representation. It was also the goal of the workshop to help participants gain insights into the relevance and importance of data analysis and statistical computing in research, particularly in the field of social science.

Name of the Convenors:   
Dr. Ivy Das Gupta
Dr. Joyeta Bhadury