The science of data analysis (statistics, psychometrics, econometrics, machine learning) has kept pace with this explosion of data. Before personal computers and the internet, new statistical methods were developed by academic researchers who published their results as theoretical papers in professional journals. It could take years for these methods to be adapted by programmers and incorporated into the statistical packages widely available to data analysts. Today, new methodologies appear daily. Statistical researchers publish new and improved methods, along with the code to produce them, on easily accessible websites.
