Next Steps
Congratulations on completing the practical! Here are some useful resources.
Stack Overflow & Forums
These communities are invaluable:
- Stack Overflow - Programming Q&A
- RStudio Community - R-specific help
For R
- R for Data Science (2e) - Comprehensive free book by Hadley Wickham
- RStudio Primers - Interactive tutorials
- Swirl - Learn R programming interactively
For Python
- Python for Everybody - Free course by University of Michigan
- Kaggle Learn - Practical micro-courses
- DataCamp - First course free, student discounts available
Statistics with R/Python:
- StatQuest - Excellent YouTube channel for statistics
- Introduction to Statistical Learning - Free book with R and Python code
Build Your Portfolio
Project Ideas
- Analyze local transport patterns using open transport data
- Recreate published analyses to learn techniques
- Contribute to open source R or Python packages
Advanced Topics to Explore
Once you’re comfortable with basics:
Data Science Skills
- Version Control: Git and GitHub for collaboration
- Reproducible Research: R Markdown, Quarto, Jupyter notebooks
Specialized Topics
- Spatial Data Science: Working with spatial data (check out geocompx.org)
- Machine Learning: Supervised and unsupervised learning
- Deep Learning: Neural networks for complex patterns
- Time Series Analysis: For temporal data
- Network Analysis: For transport networks and relationships
Final Tips
TipThe Best Way to Learn
Practice, practice, practice! Learning data science is like learning a language—you need to use it regularly to improve.
ImportantDon’t Get Overwhelmed
There’s a lot to learn, but you don’t need to learn everything at once. Pick one area, get comfortable, then expand gradually.
NoteStay Curious
The field of data science is constantly evolving. Stay curious, keep learning, and don’t be afraid to experiment!
Reuse
Copyright
© 2025 Robin Lovelace & contributors