3.6. Introduction to Quarto

Create, cite, and publish your research with Quarto.

About these materials

Welcome! This workshop is intended to introduce Quarto, an open-source publishing system that allows users to combine text, code, and output to create reproducible reports, presentations, and websites. Learners will experience the basic workflow of creating and editing Quarto documents, rendering them into different formats, and using Quarto within an R-based research workflow. Learners will focus on practicing different Quarto elements to structure documents, include analysis results, and control the appearance of their outputs. In addition, the session demonstrates how to add citations and automatically generate a bibliography using Zotero, enabling an efficient workflow for writing research reports and manuscripts. Finally, through this guided, hands-on tutorial, participants will create their own Quarto document, render it into a finished output, and learn how to publish and share their work online using GitHub Pages.

Who are these materials for?

The target audience of this workshop is twofold:

  • Self-learners with some basic experience with R and RStudio, who are interested in developing their skills on the topic. You can follow the materials by chronologically going through the slides and following along the practical exercises. You go at your own pace and within your own timeframe. Presenter notes will help you to understand and reflect on the content of the materials. Note: Group exercises are not possible in this asynchronous setting.

  • Instructors in higher education (e.g., universities, colleges) aiming to convey the content of these materials to their learners in a synchronous (in-person, virtual or hybrid) class-room setting. The slides can be directly presented in full screen below, with presenter and instructor notes providing detailed information about the content of the materials and valuable pedagogical tips how to convey the materials to your learners. You can also download the PowerPoint corresponding to the materials below and adapt the materials to your learners. Make sure to give appropriate credit to the original authors.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite Description Where to find it
Basic R skills 3.2. Introduction to R - Part I Module 3.2.
Advanced R skills 3.3. Introduction to R - Part II Module 3.3.
Basic Git skills 3.4. Introduction version control (Git) with RStudio Module 3.4.
Collaboration on GitHub 3.5. Introduction to collaborative coding with GitHub Module 3.5.
Zotero Reference Management Tool Download Link

Learning objectives

  • Create, edit, and render Quarto documents
  • Use key Quarto features like code chunks, YAML headers, citations, and output formatting
  • Insert citations and generate a bibliography with Zotero directly into the Quarto document
  • Publish and share your work using GitHub Pages

Materials

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Practical exercises - solutions

Download the solutions for the practical exercises here:

Helpfiles

Download the csv file for the example data:

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Contributors and licence details

Creator: Waterfield, Elizabeth (orcid logo 0009-0006-3725-6730)

Reviewer: von Grebmer zu Wolfsthurn, Sarah (orcid logo 0000-0002-6413-3895)

Acknowledgments: Ihle, Malika (orcid logo 0000-0002-3242-5981)


CC BY 4.0

This work was originally created by Anna Krystalli from RSE-Sheffield under a MIT licence (original repository). It was subsequently adapted by Malika Ihle during her time at Reproducible Research Oxford, with the contributions of Adam Kenny. The overview image is from Dumitru Uzun. The exercice is based on the research of Jen Bright who also kindly provided the gifs used in the exercice. It is now maintained by Malika Ihle and Sarah von Grebmer zu Wolfsthurn at the LMU Open Science Center. This current work by Elizabeth Waterfield, Sarah von Grebmer zu Wolfsthurn and Malika Ihle is licensed under a CC-BY-SA-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International SA License licence. It permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.