RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 <strong>PlotsOfData</strong> – a web app for visualizing data together with its summaries
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 426767
DO 10.1101/426767
A1 Marten Postma
A1 Joachim Goedhart
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/09/27/426767.abstract
AB Reporting of the actual data in graphs and plots increases transparency and enables independent evaluation. On the other hand, data summaries are often used in graphs since they may guide interpretation. The data summary that is appropriate depends on the number of datapoints and the distribution of the data. To optimize the visualization of data and summaries, a web app was written using R/shiny that uses the ggplot2 package for generating plots. One of the key benefits of ggplot2 is that it uses layers with adjustable transparency. In the app, users can choose how to display the data and which of the data summaries to add. Four data summaries are available, mean, median, boxplot, violinplot, to accommodate several types of data distributions. In addition, 95% confidence intervals can be added for visual inferences. By adjusting the transparency of the layers, the visualization of the raw data together with the summary can be tuned for optimal presentation and interpretation. The app is dubbed PlotsOfData and is available at: https://huygens.science.uva.nl/PlotsOfData/