PlotS: web-based application for data visualization and analysis

BackgroundData visualisation technique has greatly improved as technology has advanced. While representing the data through graph, it has made the underlying data structure become more transparent and interpretable. However, the informational scope of freely available generic visualisation tools is still limited since they only support descriptive statistics as well as no metainformation can be incorporated. Additionally, there is a need to promote the use of accepted scientific standards when performing and reporting statistical analysis. ResultPlotS is a visualization centric web-based application that allows the integration of statistical analysis into a single workflow. The current version has eight types of graphs (bar, box, density, frequency polygon, histogram, line, scatter and violin plot) and four statistical methods (T-test, ANOVA, Wilcoxon test and Krushkal-Wallis test). It is an interactive application that provide many useful customization options for data analysis-focused visualization. It support incorporation of metainformation in the graph and multivariate data analysis by adding layer with or without secondary y-axis, side graphs, inset graph or through faceting. It can handle variety of data formats with or without replicates and inferential statistical analysis can be incorporated in the graph. Necessary statistical results are explicitly displayed for inferences and reporting. ConclusionPlotS is freely available at https://plots-application.shinyapps.io/plots/. We hope it will be a useful tool for data visualisation and analysis that will also encourage the widespread use of proper statistical methods in research and teaching.