Update 2016-02-01

Software

A new package (version 0.1.0) rredlist is on CRAN. rredlist is an R client for the IUCN Red List API. The IUCN Red List is a global list of threatened and endangered species. See the README for an introduction to the package. Repository on GitHub.
A new package (version 0.2.0) mapr is on CRAN. mapr helps vizualize species occurrence data, and includes functions to ‘vizualize’ occurrence data from spocc, rgbif, and other packages. Mapping options included for base R plots, ggplot2, and various interactive maps includingn Leaflet.js. mapr is actually a re-boot of the package spoccutils - which used to have mapping and cleaning functionality. Now mapr has mapping functionality and a new package scrubr has data cleaning functionality. See the vignette for an introduction to the package. Repository on GitHub.
A new version (version 0.0.5) of webchem is on CRAN. See release notes for changes. Repository on GitHub.
A new version (0.6.0) of elastic is on CRAN. This version adds many new features, including backwards compatibility with most Elasticsearch versions, much better errors including ability to pick verbose error messaging. See the release notes for complete list of changes. Repository on GitHub.
A new version (0.3.4) of rerddap is on CRAN. This version replaces ncdf with ncdf4, and fails more gracefully now. See the release notes for complete list of changes. Repository on GitHub.
A new version (0.1.6) of geojsonio is on CRAN. See the release notes for changes. Repository on GitHub.
A new version (0.1.1) of stplanr is on CRAN. See the release notes for changes. Repository on GitHub.
A new version (0.5.0) of rcrossref is on CRAN. This version includes a new low-level API for fast access to the Crossref API; support for deep paging via Crossref’s Solr cursor functionality; and more. See the release notes for complete list of changes. Repository on GitHub.
A new version (0.1.6) of fulltext is on CRAN. ft_get_si() improvements. See the release notes for changes. Repository on GitHub.
A new version (0.5.2) of rnoaa is on CRAN. Two new data sources: ARGO buoy data via http://www.argo.ucsd.edu/ and CO-OPS tide and current data. See the release notes for changes. Repository on GitHub.
A new version (0.4.5) of spocc is on CRAN. See the release notes for changes. Repository on GitHub.

Community

We will have our 9th community call on March 2nd at 9 am PST with Dr. Jenny Bryan talking about her Google Spreadsheets R API. More details at ropensci/commcalls#9.

In the news

Virginia Gewin has a Nature magazine piece titled Data sharing: An open mind on open data that mentions rOpenSci, with a quote from our very own Karthik Ram. ¹

Use cases

Seven recent papers cite and/or rOpenSci software:

Mackinnon et al. have a paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution titled Environmental correlation analysis for genes associated with protection against malaria in which they cite and use rsnps ²
Marwick has a paper in Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory titled Computational Reproducibility in Archaeological Research: Basic Principles and a Case Study of Their Implementation that mentions rOpenSci. Code on GitHub at benmarwick/basic_computational_reproducibility_case_study. ³
Perez-Luque et al. have a paper in Zookeys titled Dataset of Passerine bird communities in a Mediterranean high mountain (Sierra Nevada, Spain) in which they use and cite taxize. ⁴
Robertson et al. have a paper in Ecography titled Biogeo: an R package for assessing and improving data quality of occurrence record datasets in which they use and cite rgbif. ⁵
Salguero-Gómez et al. have a paper in Journal of Anim Ecology titled COMADRE: a global data base of animal demography in which they cite taxize. ⁶
Plank et al. have a paper in Bulletin of Mathematical Biology titled Evolutionarily Stable Strategies for Fecundity and Swimming Speed of Fish in which they use and cite rfishbase. ⁷

References

Gewin, V. (2016). Data sharing: An open mind on open data. Nature, 529(7584), 117–119. https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7584-117a ↩
Mackinnon, M. J., Ndila, C., Uyoga, S., et al. (2016). Environmental correlation analysis for genes associated with protection against malaria. Molecular Biology and Evolution, msw004. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msw004 ↩
Marwick, B. (2016). Computational Reproducibility in Archaeological Research: Basic Principles and a Case Study of Their Implementation. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-015-9272-9 ↩
Pérez-Luque, A. J., Barea-Azcón, J. M., Álvarez-Ruiz, L., Bonet-García, F. J., & Zamora, R. (2016). Dataset of Passerine bird communities in a Mediterranean high mountain (Sierra Nevada, Spain). Zookeys, 552, 137–154. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.552.6934 ↩
Robertson, M. P., Visser, V., & Hui, C. (2016). Biogeo: an R package for assessing and improving data quality of occurrence record datasets. Ecography, n/a–n/a. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.02118 ↩
Salguero-Gómez, R., Jones, O. R., Archer, C. R., et al. (2016). COMADRE: a global data base of animal demography. J Anim Ecol. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.1248 ↩
Plank, M. J., Pitchford, J. W., & James, A. (2016). Evolutionarily Stable Strategies for Fecundity and Swimming Speed of Fish. Bull Math Biol. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11538-016-0143-7 ↩