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6.4) Using Contributed Packages (cont'd)


Helpfully for us at the University of Leeds, the ISS network has a lot of commonly-used packages already installed (and indeed, you probably won’t have sufficient privileges to install any others). To check which packages are installed and ready for loading, type library() with empty brackets. To see which packages are already loaded (including the base ones like "stats" and "graphics"), use search().

When you first install a new package, you may know the function you want from it, but often you’ll want an overview. For this, try seeking help on the name of the package, just like you would for an individual function. So typing ?lme4, after you've installed lme4, brings up a help page about the whole package. You should also try citation("lme4") in order to find how the authors would like the package cited in any publications where you use it.