Update scope for data retrieval packages #978
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@mpadge can you please mention this issue in #editors-only? |
jonthegeek
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Dec 12, 2025
Awesome, thanks! Co-authored-by: Jon Harmon <[email protected]>
maelle
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maelle
reviewed
Dec 15, 2025
| - **data retrieval**: Packages for accessing and downloading data from online sources with scientific applications. | ||
| Our definition of scientific applications is broad, including data storage services, journals, and other remote servers, as many data sources may be of interest to researchers. | ||
| However, retrieval packages should be focused on data *sources* or *topics*, rather than *services*, and should do [more than just download data](https://ropensci.org/blog/2022/06/16/publicize-api-client-yes-no). | ||
| For example a general client for Amazon Web Services data storage would not be in-scope, nor would a package which only offered download functionality without any pre-processing or pre-filtering. |
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Would https://docs.ropensci.org/riem/ still be in scope? Really minimal processing, just checking an airport exists for instance.
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I don't know, but most important is that scope evolves, and so all packages remain valid and implicitly in scope according to the time they were first judged. Scope decisions are immutable, and are not revisited.
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I'm just curious, to help polish the new text.
mpadge
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Dec 15, 2025
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Fix #478
@maelle I think this sufficiently addresses #478, but I worry that it's a bit too wordy now, so feel free to make it shorter. I really like the blog link you gave, and tried to put it in in a way that didn't need any extra words.