Publishing and Promoting your R Package

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# Publishing and Promoting your R Package
### Heather Turner
### March 5, 2020

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# Not yet written a package?

Take a look at these resources!

- Earo Wang's R-Ladies talk "Everything you need to know to create your own R package"
https://github.com/earowang/rladies-pkg
- Maëlle Salmon's satRdays workshop
https://github.com/maelle/satrday_package_workshop
- Forwards Package Development Workshop
https://github.com/forwards/workshops/tree/master/Cville2019

Update with Johannesburg satRday 2020 workshop materials soon!

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# Why publish on CRAN?

- Sign of quality
   - Code is ready to be used (not a beta version)
   - Basic standards: documented code, running examples, etc
   - Works with current version of R and other packages 
   - Commitment of maintainer
- Discoverability
- Ease of installation
- Bioconductor, rOpenSci: even higher standards, code review

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# Preparing for CRAN release

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">As someone who hopes to submit their first package 📦to CRAN this year… what should I know? 😳</p>&mdash; We are R-Ladies (@WeAreRLadies) <a href="https://twitter.com/WeAreRLadies/status/1227937968117043200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

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# Useful resources

- Hadley Wickham's R Packages gives good advice: http://r-pkgs.had.co.nz/release.html
- `usethis::use_release_issue()` creates a GitHub issue with a checklist. 
- See also 
    - https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/submission_checklist.html
    - https://github.com/ThinkR-open/prepare-for-cran
- Useful functions for additional checks:
    - `goodpractice::gp()`
    - `spelling::spell_check_package()`

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# Promoting your package

- Some promotion will/may be done for you: CRANberries, R Views Monthly Top 40, 
search engines (vignette/pkgdown site)
- Some channels are obvious: website, blog, Twitter (#rstats)
- Consider RPubs or gist for one-off tutorial/case study, e.g.
    - https://gist.github.com/sckott/08de710da349e48ede3e
    - https://rpubs.com/mdbrown/TreatmentSelection
- Publicize your new package via R Weekly https://rweekly.org/
    - Add to the weekly news blog, see [CONTRIBUTING](https://github.com/rweekly/rweekly.org/blob/gh-pages/CONTRIBUTING.md), and example pull requests [new package](https://github.com/rweekly/rweekly.org/pull/279), [new version](https://github.com/rweekly/rweekly.org/pull/277).
- Would your package fit in a CRAN Task View? https://cran.r-project.org/web/views/
    - Check description for how to propose addition
    
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# Talks

- Meetups: RUGs, R-Ladies, satRdays
- Conferences (https://jumpingrivers.github.io/meetingsR/events.html)
    - **General**: useR!, rstudio::conf, satRdays
    - **Specific**: Insurance Data Science Conference, BiocAsia 2020
    - **Non R-specific**: ???
- Conferences provide greater exposure, particular to people working in relevant
field(s).
- Don't forget to share your slides! (Conference/personal website, LinkedIn, 
RPubs, Slideshare)
    
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# Paper

- A paper not only promotes your package but benefits from peer review
    - Paper can also overlap with vignette
- Traditional journals:
    - **Open Source Software**: The R Journal, Journal of Statistical Software
    - **Computing**: Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, Journal of 
    Computational and Graphical Statistics, SoftwareX
    - **Science**: Bioinformatics, PLOS ONE, Method in Ecology and Evolution
- Alternative journals:
    - F1000research Bioconductor/R package gateway: publish, then open review
    - Journal Open Source Software: open code review, short descriptive paper
    
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# Research compendium

- A *research compendium* can showcase your work in a reproducible workflow
    - Could demonstrate a protocol/pipeline vs research study.
- Advice on how to structure a research compendium is given by rOpenSci: https://github.com/ropensci/rrrpkg
- The research compendium can be published on Zenodo, Figshare or Dryad
    - DOI points to a particular version (e.g. matching results in a paper)
    - Example using R: https://zenodo.org/record/61312#.WfnvS3BpFWO

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# Interacting with users

- Add a `BugReports` url to your `DESCRIPTION`
   - Using GitHub issues means that people can see if bug already reported and
   what action has been taken
- Consider creating an RSS feed for relevant StackOverflow questions
    - DIY based on search terms: https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/238460
    - Based on package tag (requires >1,500 reputation to add tag)
- Bug reports/help requests
    - Can show where documentation/tests need improving
    - Help you find out who's using your package and what for
    - Can give ideas for new features
    - Can lead to collaborations
    
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# Interacting with developers

- Add a `CONTRIBUTING.md` to your GitHub repository
    - Do you have a style guide?
    - Reminders to run check/tests/add NEWS item to pull requests
- Use tags to highlight issues: the following are promoted by GitHub
    - `help wanted`
    - `good first issue` 
- Add a code of conduct: make sure everyone knows ground rules for happy 
collaboration and a welcoming community
    - `devtools::use_code_of_conduct` adds Contributor Covenant
    - Be prepared to enforce!
    
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# Don't keep it to yourself!