I have found the tools I am looking for:
R – to analyze data and create graphics
knitr – (a package for r) to elegantly merge my statistical analysis with my text
miktex – to generate pdfs from my latex files
and Lyx and RStudio for quick editing my latex files with embeded R code.
Together these tools help to create reproducible research; no more errors because the data was updated, after the text was written, no more graphs at wrongfully labeled.
Some errors are hard to eradicate with technology (like wrongful conclusions). But some errors are just not necessary anymore, because convenient tools exist.
I owe a great deal of productivity to the creator if knitr Yihui Xie.
To get started on reproducible research go here: http://users.stat.umn.edu/~geyer/Sweave/#reproduce
