Statistics software that exports Python code

Point-and-click software is fast. Its weakness has always been that a year later nobody can reconstruct what was clicked.

Why this matters

Reviewers increasingly ask. Many journals expect an analysis script or a statement of how the analysis can be reproduced.

Your future self will ask. A revision arriving eighteen months after submission is normal. "I think I used Tukey" is not an answer.

Collaborators do not have your licence. A Python script runs on any machine with Python. A proprietary project file does not.

Licences expire, code does not. If your access lapses, an exported script still reproduces your numbers.

What to look for

Runnable, not pseudocode. Some tools export a summary of what they did, which is not a script you can execute and get identical numbers from.

The whole pipeline. Import, cleaning, test and figure. A script covering only the final test hides the decisions that mattered.

Named library versions. Results can shift between versions.

The options

R and Python are code from the start. SPSS produces syntax files, reproducible within SPSS but requiring SPSS. jamovi can show the underlying R syntax. Plotara exports runnable Python for every analysis and figure, covering data handling, test and plot, against pinned library versions.

The practical habit

Save the exported script next to your figure, same folder, same name. Two seconds, and it is the difference between a comfortable revision and an unpleasant one.