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Joel Barnes
Data Scientist

Joel Barnes

I've participated in most aspects of the data science enterprise for more than a decade. I build and deploy websites and databases, some of which have collected millions of data records. I use several programming languages on a daily basis to transform data into a variety of usable formats. I apply statistical modeling techniques to small- and large-scale datasets to make descriptions, inferences and predictions. And, with the help of some great colleagues and friends, most of these data insights eventually get published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

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What I Do

Web Development

I build and deploy websites for a variety of clients including non-profit organizations, academic associations and businesses. I typically use WordPress and have extensive experience in theme and plugin development.

Data Analysis

I fit a variety of statistical models to data — depending on the context at play (e.g., data questions being asked, structure of the data, distributions of the data) — in order to quantify and explain insights that are latent, to one degree or another, within the data.

Data Wrangling

I transform messy data into structures that are usable for downstream purposes such as data analysis and reporting. My go-to programming language for data wrangling is R and it has yet to let me down.

Reports, Knowledge Translation

I rely heavily on several powerful tools to summarize the results of data analyses: (1) the DataTables JavaScript library for searchable/filterable data tables, (2) ggplot2 for publication-ready plots, and (3) R Markdown, which brings together the code, the tables and the plots in a format that allows for complete reproducibility. I also synthesize large amounts of research literature and provide summaries for lay audiences.