Apr 11, 2016

rOpenSci HQ

• We’re still looking for a community manager! Read about the position on our blog to find out more. Informal questions and inquiries welcome at jobs at ropensci org.
• We had our 3rd annual rOpenSci unconference in San Francisco from 31 March to 1 April. Check out the website http://unconf16.ropensci.org, and the issue tracker with lots of ideas, some of which we worked on (you can tell which had discussion/work by looking at the little icon for number of comments in each issue).

Software

• A new version (0.3.5) of bold is on CRAN. See release notes for changes. This version fixes a bug in an internal data parser, and adds more tests. Repository on GitHub.
• A new version (0.9.3) of rgbif is on CRAN. See release notes for changes. In this version: Fixed parsing bug in name_usage() function; fix to occ_download() to parse error correctly when empty body passed from GBIF; code tidying throughout the package;. The big change: occ_data() and occ_search() gain ability to more flexibly deal with inputs to the geometry parameter. Previously, long WKT strings passed to occ_data() and occ_search() would fail because URIs can only be so long. Another option is to use the download API (see ?downloads). This version adds the ability to choose what to do with long WKT strings. Repository on GitHub.
• A new version (1.0.8) of rusda is on CRAN. See NEWS for changes. Repository on GitHub.
• A new version (0.7.5) of taxize is on CRAN. See release notes for changes. This version has a few fixes: Fixes to bold package (see above), a taxize dependency, fixes bugs here; fixed bug in gnr_resolve() where we indexed to columns improperly; fixed bug in iucn_summary() - requires an API key for the Redlist API when passing in a taxon name, so the function gains new parameter key and we updated the docs accordingly. Repository on GitHub.
• A new version (0.3) of pdftools is on CRAN. See NEWS for changes. Repository on GitHub.
• A new version (0.1.8) of geojsonio is on CRAN. See release notes for changes. This version fixes a bug in geojson_write(), and other minor improvements. Repository on GitHub.

Use cases

One recent paper cites rOpenSci software:

• Miya et al. cite and use rfishbase (the Fishbase R client) in their paper Evolutionary Origin of the Scombridae (Tunas and Mackerels): Members of a Paleogene Adaptive Radiation with 14 Other Pelagic Fish Families (Note: this is a 2013 paper, but we just found it now :)) ¹
• Amano et al. cite and use rgbif (the GBIF R client) in their paper Spatial Gaps in Global Biodiversity Information and the Role of Citizen Science ²

Keep up with rOpenSci news

There are a number of ways to keep up with what rOpenSci is doing:

• Mailing list: Sign up with an email address to get new blog posts sent to your inbox -> ropensci.org/#subscribe
• rOpenSci on Twitter: we’re @ropensci
• The rOpenSci blog at ropensci.org/blog - you can subscribe in any RSS aggregator, or manually via http://ropensci.org/feed.xml. We also announce new blog posts on our Twitter account.

Footnotes