diff --git a/commit_activity_analysis/get_weekly_commit_counts.R b/commit_activity_analysis/get_weekly_commit_counts.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3872fa7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/commit_activity_analysis/get_weekly_commit_counts.R
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+library(tidyverse)
+# test data directory: /gscratch/comdata/users/mjilg/program_testing/
+# load in the paritioned directories
+library(dplyr)
+library(lubridate)
+
+#for a given file we want to get the count data and produce a csv
+test_file <- "/gscratch/comdata/users/mjilg/program_testing/core_2012-01-01_to_2014-12-31.csv"
+test_dir <- "/gscratch/comdata/users/mjilg/program_testing/"
+
+transform_commit_data <- function(filepath){
+  df = read.csv(filepath, header = TRUE) 
+  dir_path = dirname(filepath)
+  file_name = basename(filepath)
+  
+  # transform the rows of commit data to weekly count data
+  project_name <- sub("_[0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}_to_[0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}.csv$", "", file_name)
+  
+  df <- df |>
+    mutate(commit_date = ymd_hms(commit_date)) |>
+    mutate(project_name = project_name)
+  
+  weekly_commits <- df |>
+    mutate(week = floor_date(commit_date, "week")) |>
+    group_by(week, project_name) |>
+    summarise(commit_count = n(), .groups = 'drop')
+  
+  #prepare to save the new, transformed file
+  count_path <- file.path(dir_path, "weekly_counts")
+  count_file_name <- paste0("weeklycount_", file_name)
+  output_file_path <- file.path(count_path, count_file_name)
+  #save and gracefully exit
+  write.csv(weekly_commits, output_file_path, row.names = FALSE)
+  return(weekly_commits)
+}
+
+#then for all files in a directory
+transform_directory_of_commit_data <- function(dir_path) {
+  file_list <- list.files(path = dir_path, pattern = "*.csv", full.names = TRUE)
+  for (filepath in file_list) {
+    transform_commit_data(filepath)
+  }
+}
+
+transform_directory_of_commit_data(test_dir)