RPublica 
ProPublica API Client
The package is released under GPL-2 as part of the rOpenGov project. Licenses for the data depend on the particular API, but access to that data (regardless of license) through the APIs is allowed under ProPublica’s Data Terms of Use.
The package serves as a client library for the (currently) three ProPublica data journalism APIs:
-
Nonprofit Explorer, which provides access to IRS Form 990 data on for every organization required to file a Form 990 (i.e., those claiming tax exempt status). These data are in the public domain.
-
Forensics, which provides state- and county-level data about coroner and medical examiner systems. These data are released under a modified Creative Commons license.
-
Free the Files, which provides access to political television spending data based on FCC filings in 33 swing markets. These data are released under a modified Creative Commons license.
Installation
RPublica is available on GitHub and can (soon) be installed from within R from your favorite CRAN mirror:
install.packages("RPublica")And the latest development version, available here, can be installed directly using devtools:
# install.packages("devtools")
library("devtools")
install_github("rOpenGov/RPublica")Alternatively, you can install RPublica using the
r-universe:
# Enable this universe
options(repos = c(
ropengov = "https://ropengov.r-universe.dev",
CRAN = "https://cloud.r-project.org"
))
install.packages("RPublica")Using the package
Nonprofit Explorer
The Nonprofit Explorer
API functionality
includes two functions: npsearch, to retrieve subsets of available
organizations, and np_org to retrieve detailed information about a
given organization including a direct link to the complete Form 990 for
that organization (as a PDF).
library("RPublica")
str(np_search("propublica"), max = 1)
#> List of 12
#> $ total_results : int 1
#> $ organizations :'data.frame': 1 obs. of 14 variables:
#> $ num_pages : int 1
#> $ cur_page : int 0
#> $ page_offset : int 0
#> $ per_page : int 100
#> $ search_query : chr "propublica"
#> $ selected_state: NULL
#> $ selected_ntee : chr "NULL"
#> $ selected_code : NULL
#> $ data_source : chr "ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/\nIRS Exempt Organizations Bu"| __truncated__
#> $ api_version : int 2
str(np_org(142007220), max = 1)
#> List of 5
#> $ organization :List of 34
#> $ filings_with_data :'data.frame': 9 obs. of 68 variables:
#> $ filings_without_data:'data.frame': 7 obs. of 5 variables:
#> $ data_source : chr "ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/\nIRS Exempt Organizations Bu"| __truncated__
#> $ api_version : int 2Forensics API
The Forensics API
functionality includes two functions: geos, to return data for a
specific state, and systems, to return detailed data and statistics
about specified medical examiner (or coroner) system.
library("RPublica")
g <- geos()
tibble::as_tibble(g)
#> # A tibble: 80 x 15
#> geo.ar_associat~ geo.cached_slug geo.coroner_sys~ geo.created_at geo.district
#> <int> <chr> <chr> <chr> <lgl>
#> 1 1 ak none 2011-05-04T12~ NA
#> 2 2 ar county 2011-05-04T12~ NA
#> 3 3 ct none 2011-05-04T12~ NA
#> 4 4 de none 2011-05-04T12~ NA
#> 5 5 dc none 2011-05-04T12~ NA
#> 6 6 ky county 2011-05-04T12~ NA
#> 7 7 me none 2011-05-04T12~ NA
#> 8 8 md none 2011-05-04T12~ NA
#> 9 9 ma none 2011-05-04T12~ NA
#> 10 10 mt county 2011-05-04T12~ NA
#> # ... with 70 more rows, and 10 more variables: geo.id <int>, geo.kind <chr>,
#> # geo.medical_examiner_system <chr>, geo.name <chr>, geo.note <lgl>,
#> # geo.population <lgl>, geo.postal_abbreviation <chr>, geo.updated_at <chr>,
#> # geo.system_types.medical_examiner_system <chr>,
#> # geo.system_types.coroner_system <chr>Free the Files
The Free the Files
API functionality
includes four functions: market (for retrieving available markets, or
a specific market), station (for retrieving station-specific
data,committee(for retrieving sponsoring committees, or a specific such committee), andfiling`
(for retrieving details of a specific filing). A codebook describing the
values returned by each function is available at:
https://projects.propublica.org/free-the-files/api.
library("RPublica")
tibble::as_tibble(market())
#> # A tibble: 33 x 5
#> market.name market.slug market.titleized~ market.filings_~ market.freed_ct
#> <chr> <chr> <chr> <int> <int>
#> 1 NEW YORK new-york New York 475 127
#> 2 PHILADELPHIA philadelphia Philadelphia 718 642
#> 3 BOSTON (MANC~ boston-manc~ Boston and Manch~ 1736 726
#> 4 WASHINGTON D~ washington-~ Washington, D.C.~ 988 626
#> 5 ATLANTA atlanta Atlanta 4 0
#> 6 DETROIT detroit Detroit 658 420
#> 7 PHOENIX (PRE~ phoenix-pre~ Phoenix and Pres~ 1331 869
#> 8 TAMPA-ST. PE~ tampa-st-pe~ Tampa, St. Peter~ 2687 527
#> 9 MINNEAPOLIS-~ minneapolis~ Minneapolis-St. ~ 1429 815
#> 10 MIAMI-FT. LA~ miami-ft-la~ Miami and Ft. La~ 564 129
#> # ... with 23 more rows
m <- market("new-york")
s <- station("WEWS-TV")
str(committee())
#> 'data.frame': 1203 obs. of 4 variables:
#> $ committee.gross_amt: chr NA "221983291.25" "91778107" "57249945" ...
#> $ committee.id : int 4665 1221 1220 942 3959 3820 883 1170 907 1172 ...
#> $ committee.name : chr "PLANNED PARENTHOOD/ ISSUE" "OBAMA FOR AMERICA" "ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT" "AMERICAN CROSSROADS" ...
#> $ committee.slug : chr "planned-parenthood-issue" "obama-for-america" "romney-for-president" "american-crossroads--2" ...