Statistical & mathematical software

A number of statistical and mathematical software options are available for researchers and research students to use at Victoria University.

NVivo

NVivo can assist you to organise and analyse complex non-numerical or unstructured data, text and multimedia, it also supports some statistical analysis functions. NVivo accommodates a wide range of research methods, supports documents in many languages and is useful for qualitative research and data analysis. It's used by researchers in a broad range of fields including:

  • humanities
  • social sciences
  • medical/health sciences.

NCapture

NCapture is a free web browser extension that enables you to gather material from the web to import into NVivo. You can collect a range of web content such as:

  • web pages
  • online articles
  • blog posts
  • social media data from:
    • Facebook*
    • Twitter*
    • YouTube*

* If you are using a Mac computer, some content types that you can capture with NCapture can't be imported into your project, this may depend on the version of the Operating System you are using.

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)

SPSS is a computer application that provides statistical analysis of data. It allows in-depth data access and preparation, analytical reporting, graphics and modelling.

Stata

Fast and easy to use, Stata is a powerful statistical package with smart data-management facilities, a wide array of up-to-date statistical techniques and an excellent system for producing publication-quality graphs.

MATLAB

MATLAB® is a high-level language and interactive environment that enables the performance of computationally intensive tasks faster than with traditional programming languages.

Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS)

AMOS is an added SPSS module for Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) analysis. AMOS includes confirmatory factor analysis, measurement analysis and path analysis. Basic steps in AMOS are: draw the model, attach data, select outputs, and run. 

Partial Least Square (PLS)

PLS (Partial Least Square) is an alternative analysis of structural equation modelling (SEM). Two common softwares for conducting this analysis are WarpPLS and SmartPLS. These two softwares are currently not provided by VU but it can be freely downloaded and used for a certain period of time. The advantage of PLS over AMOS is the less-stringent requirement of the sample size and distribution type.

Support

NVivo, SPSS, AMOS, PLS & STATA

Support for most of the statistical and mathematical software used on campus can be provided by the Research Ambassadors.

This includes support for NVivo, SPSS, AMOS, PLS and STATA.

The Research Ambassadors can also assist with any enquiries related to Microsoft Excel.

MATLAB support

Phone: +61 3 9919 4289
Email: [email protected]