David C. Wyld et al. (Eds): AIAA, DPPR, DSA, ICSS, IOTE, NLPTA, WEST, CACIT, BMLI- 2022 pp. 77-90, 2022. CS & IT - CSCP 2022 DOI: 10.5121/csit.2022.122307 REVIEW OF THE USE OF R PROGRAMMING FOR DATA ANALYSIS IN BOTSWANA RESEARCH Simisani Ndaba Department of Computer Science, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana ABSTRACT R is widely used by researchers in the statistics field and academia. In Botswana, it is used in a few research for data analysis. The paper aims to synthesis research conducted in Botswana that has used R programming for data analysis and to demonstrate to data scientists, the R community in Botswana and internationally the gaps and applications in practice in research work using R in the context of Botswana. The paper followed the PRISMA methodology and the articles were taken from information technology databases. The findings show that research conducted in Botswana that use R programming were used in Health Care, Climatology, Conservation and Physical Geography, with R part as the most used R package across the research areas. It was also found that a lot of R packages are used in Health care for genomics, plotting, networking and classification was the common model used across research areas. KEYWORDS R Programming, Botswana, R Package, Research Area, Data Analysis 1. INTRODUCTION R is a programming language which is used for statistical computing, data analysis and graphic production, and can be obtained free of charge from the Internet [1].An advantage of the R ecosystem is the powerful set of add-on packages that can be used to perform a range of tasks from experimental design. R programming language is one of the most popular means of introducing computing into data science, data analytics, and statistics curricula[2]. R is part of The Carpentries[3],a global non-profit organization that teaches practical data science skills to researchers through active learning workshops. 1.1. Background Research in Botswana is guided by [4]. [5] wrote that while development-oriented research is a priority, in the interest of expanding knowledge in various fields, research of a more academic and theoretical nature is permitted wherever possible. The research topics with the greatest number of publications are in the areas of Geosciences, Multidisciplinary Ecology; Environmental Sciences; Water Resources and Veterinary Sciences. Botswana has a national research, science and technology plan [6], which is informed by the need for a centre of excellence to earn a reputation as a significant resource for the progress of science and technology and the spread of innovation, a strong dependency on imported fuel such as oil and electricity, a resurgence of diseases such as TB and increasing HIV-related infections, a wealth of untapped indigenous knowledge in traditional Botswana society, and importance of information and communication technology as vital for the country’s future as a pervasive enabler of industry