Codifying tacit knowledge in functions using R

What you will learn

Data collection efforts often come with a lot of documentation, of varying degrees of completeness.  Having large amounts of documentation or incomplete documentation can make it hard for analysts to use the data correctly.  In this presentation, Dr. Fisher describes an approach that data distributors can use to make it easier for analysts to use the data correctly.   The approach uses functions that are specific to a given data set (data-specific functions) to encode tacit knowledge about the data, like known missing values and unusual merge patterns.  By building and using functions that capture tacit knowledge about the data, data distributors can provide the tools to make it easy to use the data correctly, even if the written documentation is incomplete or overwhelming.

Authors

Jacob Fisher

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