It would seem to me like R would be like trying to use a sledge hammer to tap in finishing nails. Sounds to me like you need some sort of database that can be easily called when you need to analyze the data. Hiring a data modeler or some other similar IT consultant. Have them set up the db and pre-write the kinds of queries you will need. From there, what type of software you need is highly dependent on the types of statistics you are running. From the sounds of it excel will work just fine.

English is possibly the worst major if you want to learn any useful writing skills. You would be far better served if you chose History, Sociology or Poly Sci where the writing structure is much more likely to influence and improve future technical writing.

In mathematics they alphabetize authors so there is no assumption of primary, secondary, etc.