Directly after handing in my PhD I did what most people probably do: have a little rest from data analysis. The 'rest' continued into the first few months of my postdoc, because my main focus was on data collection to expand the database I'll be working on.
Consequently, the world of Bayesian modelling using R and BUGS has moved on without me. Or, perhaps I was always behind the times! Either way, I now find myself free from data collection and getting back into modelling.
Previously, I was using BRugs to run models in OpenBUGS from R. My PhD supervisor, Richard Duncan, encouraged me to switch over to using R2jags as the R package of choice. The other package I've looked at is rjags. Switching my code over was relatively straightforward and R2jags seems to run models more quickly than through BRugs. If anyone is using R2WinBUGS or BRugs as the R interface for BUGS, I would encourage you to try switching to a jags package.
The other good package I've discovered is mcmcplots, which has a function that plots the model output in an HTML format using your web browser to display it. This is more convenient than dealing with plots in R itself.
Consequently, the world of Bayesian modelling using R and BUGS has moved on without me. Or, perhaps I was always behind the times! Either way, I now find myself free from data collection and getting back into modelling.
Previously, I was using BRugs to run models in OpenBUGS from R. My PhD supervisor, Richard Duncan, encouraged me to switch over to using R2jags as the R package of choice. The other package I've looked at is rjags. Switching my code over was relatively straightforward and R2jags seems to run models more quickly than through BRugs. If anyone is using R2WinBUGS or BRugs as the R interface for BUGS, I would encourage you to try switching to a jags package.
The other good package I've discovered is mcmcplots, which has a function that plots the model output in an HTML format using your web browser to display it. This is more convenient than dealing with plots in R itself.
