ARS | Publication request: imDEV: a graphical user interface to R multivariate analysis tools in Microsoft Excel

Submitted to: Oxford University Press
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: July 5, 2012
Publication Date: July 18, 2012
Citation: Grapov, D., Newman, J.W. 2012. imDEV: a graphical user interface to R multivariate analysis tools in Microsoft Excel. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093.

Interpretive Summary: A software package has been written to facilitate multivariate data analysis and data visualization within the broadly available Microsoft Excel spreadsheet environment. The package is called Interactive Modules for Data Exploration and Visualization (imDEV). This Microsoft Excel Add-In provides an integrated environment for the analysis of omics data sets with a user-friendly interface. Individual modules have been designed to provide toolsets to enable interactive and dynamic analyses of large data by interfacing R’s multivariate statistics and customizable visualizations with the spreadsheet environment to aid robust inference and generate information rich data visualizations of multivariate data. This tool provides access to multiple comparisons with false discovery correction, hierarchical clustering, principal and independent component analyses, partial least squares regression and partial least squares discriminant analysis, and is complemented with an intuitive interface to create high quality two and a three-dimensional visualizations including scatter plot matrices, distribution plots, dendrograms, heat maps, biplots, trellis biplots and correlation networks. The software is built on an open source platform and is freely available to the public at http://sourceforge.net/projects/imdev/.

Technical Abstract: Interactive modules for data exploration and visualization (imDEV) is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet embedded application providing an integrated environment for the analysis of omics data sets with a user-friendly interface. Individual modules were designed to provide toolsets to enable interactive and dynamic analyses of large data by interfacing R’s multivariate statistics and highly customizable visualizations with the spreadsheet environment to aid robust inference and generate information rich data visualizations of multivariate data. This tool provides access to multiple comparisons with false discovery correction, hierarchical clustering, principal (PCA) and independent component analyses (ICA), partial least squares regression (PLS) and discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and is complimented with an intuitive interface to create high quality two and a three-dimensional visualizations including scatter plot matrices, distribution plots, dendrograms, heat maps, biplots, trellis biplots and correlation networks. Availability and Implementation: Freely available for download at http://sourceforge.net/projects/imdev/. Implemented in R and VBA and supported by Microsoft Excel (2003, 2007 and 2010).