Heavy R programming – Heavy News

News and information about the R programming language

Using R to Teach R: Lessons for Software Development
As we approach the decennial (10-year) anniversary since Jumping Rivers was founded in 2016, it’s a good time to reflect on what we have achieved in that time and share some lessons learned. If you have read our blogs previously then you will be aware that Jumping Rivers is a … Continue reading: Using R […]
Hold On Hope: publication lag times at cell biology journals
I’ve posted about publication lag times previously. The “lag” refers to the time from submitting a paper and it appearing in a journal. Publication lag times are still a frustration for researchers. Although preprints circumvent the delay in sharing science with others, publication is still king when it comes … Continue reading: Hold On Hope: […]
Developer Engagement and Bioconductor
Introduction During the Chan Zuckerberg Institute’s Essential Open Source Software for Science cycle 6 funding round, the Bioconductor Community Manager, Maria Doyle, secured a grant to fund a developer engagement position for Bioconductor, and… Continue reading: Developer Engagement and Bioconductor
Collaborating between Bioconductor and R-universe on Development of Common Infrastructure
For more than two decades, the Bioconductor project has been a cornerstone of the R ecosystem, providing high-quality, peer-reviewed tools for bioinformatics and computational biology. Its curated repository model, rigorous review standards, and tight… Continue reading: Collaborating between Bioconductor and R-universe on Development of Common Infrastructure
Collaborating between Bioconductor and R-universe on Development of Common Infrastructure
This article is cross-posted on rOpenSci and R-Consortium blogs. For more than two decades, the Bioconductor project has been a cornerstone of the R ecosystem, providing high-quality, peer-reviewed tools for bioinformatics and computational biol… Continue reading: Collaborating between Bioconductor and R-universe on Development of Common Infrastructure
EM-DAT, the world’s disaster memory, is at risk
I do not usually write posts that are calls to action. But sometimes, something important enough comes along that it would feel wrong to stay silent. This is one of those times. What is EM-DAT? EM-DAT, the Emergency Events Database, is the world’s… Continue reading: EM-DAT, the world’s disaster memory, is at risk
Marathon Man: how to pace a marathon
How does the average marathoner pace their race? In this post, we’ll use R to have a look at a large dataset of marathon times to try to answer this question. The ideal strategy would be to “even split” the race. This is where you run continually at the … Continue reading: Marathon Man: how […]
One interface, (Almost) Every Classifier: unifiedml v0.2.1
A new version of `unifiedml` is out; available on CRAN. `unifiedml` is an effort to offer a unified interface to R's machine learning models. Continue reading: One interface, (Almost) Every Classifier: unifiedml v0.2.1
You can just build your own programming language
Last summer, while relaxing on the beaches of Berck, a French town known for treating tuberculosis in kids by exposing them to the fresh maritime air (back in 19th century, they have antibiotics these days), I found myself daydreaming abou… Continue reading: You can just build your own programming language
AI agents can create convincing ecological models, but you still need to know what you’re doing
Agentic AI tools like Claude Code can write and run code, fix its own errors, and produce a formatted report with figures. I wanted to know whether that translates into reliable ecological modelling, so we ran a test: three fisheries tasks, four… Continue reading: AI agents can create convincing ecological models, but you still need […]

The 8 Best R Programming Books in 2022

New course aims to train next generation of data scientists

“Ogihara and Bonnell chose to use R because it is attuned to statistical analysis and, by incorporating an increasingly popular collection of tools in R called tidyverse, students can easily learn how to process, wrangle, transform, and model data on their own, too.”