3. Overview of jamovi

jamovi is a free and open statistical software that helps us run our descriptive and inferential statistics. Why are we using jamovi and not another program?

1. Did I mention it’s free? You won’t ever have to pay a dime to use the software in the future, unless you use the paid version of jamovi Cloud.

2. It’s open source, meaning that the statistical community helps support and improve the program. As jamovi says, “jamovi is made by the scientific community, for the scientific community.”

3. It’s built on top of the R statistical language, meaning you can begin learning how to code (if you want). I do all of my statistical analyses using R in a different program called RStudio (actually this book was developed in RStudio and hosted on GitHub!). It’s a very powerful tool which is also free and open source.

4. It’s incredibly easy to learn and use. I have taught statistics using both SPSS and jamovi, and students greatly prefer jamovi.

5. It promotes reproducibility. jamovi will save your data, analyses, options, and results all in one file so you can easily pick up where you left off. This will make your homework and future data analyses a breeze.

And if you don’t want to hear it from me, here’s another person’s description of what jamovi is and why it’s a great alternative to SPSS that provides a useful path toward learning R.

3.1 Installing jamovi

To install jamovi, go to https://www.jamovi.org/download.html. I recommend downloading the “current” version with the latest features, but you may want to get the “solid” version that is more stable.

jamovi has more documentation on how to install jamovi per operating system. Installation on macOS and Windows should be pretty straightforward. Here’s some guidance if you are getting an error on Windows that “The app you’re trying to install isn’t a Microsoft verified app.”

Chromebooks may have an issue installing jamovi if your version of Chromebook does not use Linux. Watch this video for support on installing jamovi on a Chromebook.

3.2 Navigating the jamovi interface

I recommend you watch this video by Alexander Swan on navigating the jamovi interface in jamovi to understand everything. Note that he is using a Mac in his demonstrations and that he has downloaded a ton of add-on modules which is why his Analyses tab looks different from yours.

Opening data in jamovi

I recommend you watch this video by Alexander Swan on opening files in jamovi.

Opening SPSS (.sav) files in jamovi

Here’s another video walking you through how to open .sav files in jamovi.

Entering data in jamovi

Occasionally you need to manually enter data into jamovi instead of opening a pre-existing data file. I recommend you watch this video by Alexander Swan on entering data manually in jamovi.

Annotating output in jamovi

Sometimes I may ask you to submit a file of your output with annotations. I recommend you watch this video by Alexander Swan on annotating output in jamovi.

3.3 Additional jamovi videos and resources

Here are some additional resources on jamovi I recommend you bookmark and use when you are struggling or need additional support:

• jamovi 2022 tutorials by Alexander Swan on YouTube

• jamovi docs provide more support for using jamovi, including tips for transitioning from SPSS to jamovi and from jamovi to R

• caution: these use an older version of jamovi! Introduction to jamovi LinkedIn Learning course by Barton Poulson, founder of datalab.cc (you can find the video on YouTube and other places now, too, if you do not have LinkedIn Learning).

• Want more practice with jamovi? Want to do so using real data with a focus on DEI? Check out Neumann, Hood, & Neumann’s (2013) datasets and problem sets!