I haven't yet read anything in the documentation or JOSS paper draft, that I would consider a statement of need. This is a blocker to acceptance since it is specifically called out in the review checklist.
This is what I read in the paper:
Statement of need
bcdata is an R package that enables programmatic access, using the R programming language,
to data sets housed in the British Columbia (B.C.) Data Catalogue. The package connects
the diverse array of mapping, modelling and data processing capabilities of the R ecosystem
to the hundreds of open-licensed data sets publicly available in the B.C. Data Catalogue.
It's more of a capability statement. My understanding of this statement is that it is supposed to articulate why this software needed to be developed, and who for.
I think it should be pretty easy to do this. Some angles that come to mind regarding need:
Reproducibility. Scripts can easilly refer to bcdata sources by static GUID. More likely to work in future. Data lineage can be made completely clear.
Convenience. Esp for working with spatial data. Helps avoid large downloads. Automatically parses data into readily usable form with correct spatial metadata. Helps non-GIS-experts achieve spatial analysis tasks.
You'll probably have others.
Audience is a bit easier: people analysing public data with R in BC. They can be beginner to intermediate useRs since bcdata is flattening the learning curve a bit.
stephhazlitt
commented
3 years ago
I haven't yet read anything in the documentation or JOSS paper draft, that I would consider a statement of need. This is a blocker to acceptance since it is specifically called out in the review checklist.
This is what I read in the paper:
It's more of a capability statement. My understanding of this statement is that it is supposed to articulate why this software needed to be developed, and who for.
I think it should be pretty easy to do this. Some angles that come to mind regarding need:
You'll probably have others.
Audience is a bit easier: people analysing public data with R in BC. They can be beginner to intermediate useRs since
bcdatais flattening the learning curve a bit.Link to JOSS review thread: https://github.com/openjournals/joss-reviews/issues/2927