Working together to push science forward
Happy rOpenSci users can be found at
It’s easy to come to a conference and feel intimidated by the wealth of knowledge and expertise of other attendees. As Ellen Ullman, a software engineer and writer describes,1 I was aware at all times that I had only islands of knowledge separated by darkness; that I was surrounded by chasms of not-knowing, into one of which I was certain to fall. One of the best ways to start feeling less intimidated is to start talking to others....
Data == knowledge! Much of the data we use, whether it be from government repositories, social media, GitHub, or e-commerce sites comes from public-facing APIs. The quantity of data available is truly staggering, but munging JSON output into a format that is easily analyzable in R is an equally staggering undertaking. When JSON is turned into an R object, it usually becomes a deeply nested list riddled with missing values that is difficult to untangle into a tidy format....
Part of rOpenSci’s mission is to create technical infrastructure in the form of carefully vetted R software tools that lower barriers to working with data sources on the web. Our open peer software review system for community-contributed tools is a key component of this. As the rOpenSci community grows and more package authors submit their work for peer review, we need to expand our editorial board to maintain a speedy process....
You can find members of the rOpenSci team at various meetings and workshops around the world. Come say ‘hi’, learn about how our software packages can enable your research, or about our process for open peer software review and onboarding, how you can get connected with the community or tell us how we can help you do open and reproducible research.
...🔗 Introduction I never thought that I’d be programming software in my career. I started using R a little over 2 years now and it’s been one of the most important decisions in my career. Secluded in a small academic office with no one to discuss/interact about my new hobby, I started searching the web for tutorials and packages. After getting to know how amazing and nurturing the R community is, it made me want to become a data scientist....
Happy rOpenSci users can be found at