rmangal

[SteveViss]

Submitting Author: Steve Vissault (@SteveViss)
Repository: https://github.com/mangal-wg/rmangal

---

• Paste the full DESCRIPTION file inside a code block below:

Package: rmangal
Type: Package
Title: Mangal Client
Version: 1.9.0.9000
Authors@R: c(
    person(given = "Steve", family = "Vissault", comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0002-0866-4376"),
      email = "steve.vissault@usherbrooke.ca", role = c("aut", "cre")),
    person(given = "Kevin", family = "Cazelles", comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0001-6619-9874"),
        email = "kcazelle@uoguelph.ca", role = c("aut","ctb")),
    person(given = "Gabriel", family = "Bergeron",
      email = "gabriel.bergeron3@usherbrooke.ca", role = c("aut","ctb")),
    person(given = "Benjamin", family = "Mercier",
      email = "Benjamin.B.Mercier@usherbrooke.ca", role = c("aut","ctb")),
    person(given = "Clément", family = "Violet",
      email = "Clement.Violet@etudiant.univ-brest.fr", role = c("aut","ctb")),
    person(given = "Dominique", family = "Gravel",
      email = "dominique.gravel@usherbrooke.ca", role = c("aut")),
    person(given = "Timothée", family = "Poisot",
      email = "timothee.poisot@umontreal.ca", role = c("aut"))
      )
Description: An interface to the Mangal database - a collection of ecological networks
<http://poisotlab.biol.umontreal.ca/#/>. 
This package includes functions to work with the Mangal RESTFul API methods 
(<https://mangal-wg.github.io/mangal-api/#api-documentation>).
URL: http://poisotlab.biol.umontreal.ca/#/, https://github.com/mangal-wg/rmangal
BugReports: https://github.com/mangal-wg/rmangal/issues
License: MIT + file LICENSE
Encoding: UTF-8
LazyData: true
Imports:
    httr (>= 1.3.1),
    jsonlite (>= 1.5),
    igraph,
    purrr,
    sf
RoxygenNote: 6.1.1
Suggests:
    knitr,
    magrittr,
    mapview,
    rmarkdown,
    taxize,
    testthat,
    tibble,
    USAboundaries
VignetteBuilder: knitr
Roxygen: list(markdown = TRUE)

Scope

• Please indicate which category or categories from our package fit policies this package falls under: (Please check an appropriate box below.:

  • data retrieval
  • data extraction
  • database access
  • data munging
  • data deposition
  • reproducibility
  • geospatial data
  • text analysis

• Explain how the and why the package falls under these categories (briefly, 1-2 sentences).

The rmangal package provides all the functions to retrieve ecological networks stored in Mangal interactions database v2. The rmangal package makes easier to integrate the data acquisition step of ecological networks into a reproducible workflow.

Please note any areas you are unsure of: reproducibility

• Who is the target audience and what are scientific applications of this package?

This package targets mostly ecologists interested in the structure of interactions among species,
individus and populations at different scales. By giving access to a large collection of networks around the globe, Mangal opens the path to study ecological networks properties (connectance, degree, trophic structure etc.) at global scale in a more reproducible way.

• Are there other R packages that accomplish the same thing? If so, how does yours differ or meet our criteria for best-in-category?

The only package that could have a potential overlap is rglobi. rmangal serves a different purpose by giving access at ecological networks (already published) in a standardized matter; whether GloBI is aggregating pairwise interactions among species and do not keep track of the study context (e.g. sampling date and location). Mangal 1.0 was a data provider of the GloBi infrastructure, and we plan to do the same with Mangal 2.0.

• Any other questions or issues we should be aware of?

No

---

We are polishing the last steps: reviewing package documentation and finishing the
API documentation. We would appreciate to know if this package could be considered for submission.

Best,
Steve Vissault
on the behalf of all authors / contributors (@KevCaz, @gabrielbouleau, @BenMerSci, @clementviolet, @tpoisot).

[noamross]

Yes, this package is straightforwardly in-scope under data retrieval. We welcome a full submission when it is ready.