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I started using IBM SPSS Statistics with data on Punch Cards
November 06, 2023

I started using IBM SPSS Statistics with data on Punch Cards

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • IBM SPSS Statistics

Overall Satisfaction with IBM SPSS Statistics

I am a currently an independent consultant with a contract with a nonprofit organization where I had worked for almost 30 years as a researcher or as an IT director. I also have 10 years experience as an Institutional Research Director at a large urban community college, from which I retired 4 years ago.
  • Generates results quickly
  • Easy to ready output
  • Easy to manage
  • Better documentation
  • Problem with complex billing process for an individual subscriber. Seems hard for IBM SPSS Statistics to understand that I'm on my own, not in a big organization. Most individuals are probably now using "R" instead of IBM SPSS Statistics, but my decades of using IBM SPSS Statistics make me more comfortable with it, even as I started off on IBM SPSS Statistics using punch cards. :-)
  • Logistic Regression should be in the base subscription level, particularly for education research. I was annoyed that I lost access to it between projects without any notice and had to pay more to get it back.
OK, when I started consulting on my own, I downloaded R and started working with it. But my experience with R was limited to a one-week course and didn't cover everything. Trying to figure out what packages to download and so on was a real burden on my time, and IBM SPSS Statistics 15 version I had purchased once demanded a CD ROM my computer no longer has. When I moved to the subscription version in 2021, suddenly it was all easy again and I saved a lot of time! I kept up with the subscription even when the project ended in case I needed to re-run something for a publication or presentation. Mostly I didn't use it after completing that project. However, when a new project came along in 2023, I immediately went to IBM SPSS Statistics when I had the data available, but something had changed along the way and my monthly receipts were not coming in, etc. I also had to add on features I had previously used with the subscription, which added to my cost.
Nothing, really. I'm not out looking for new projects at this point.
I described this in a previous question. R is free and full of features, but time consuming to learn, especially since you have to download different libraries for whatever you're doing. I know IBM SPSS Statistics fairly well, and it has been worth the cost, but maybe not for much longer.
If someone is starting off new with statistics, I probably would recommend using R instead, even though I don't like it as well. I note that many of the features I now am using in IBM SPSS Statistics actually come from R, according to the most recent update. IBM SPSS Statistics seems like a classic luxury car when many individual users might be just as happy with an e-bike. It also seems that IBM is probably more interested in developing AI and machine learning and less interested in people who need to analyze survey data accurately and quickly for education or marketing, in my opinion.