Anyone familiar with R will know that in addition to being a superb language for statistical computing, it comprises an ecosystem and community of extraordinary depth and commitment. Because of the tradition of providing multiple levels of documentation within contributed R packages, CRAN and Bioconductor have become great repositories of statistical knowledge. However, as with any human enterprise that is meant to persist over time, there is a need not only for ongoing maintenance but also for continuous improvement. It is in this spirit that the R Consortium’s Infrastructure Steering Committee (ISC) would like to announce the Kaizen project for R package documentation.
Beginning with the present open call for proposals, the ISC will award grants for projects to improve the documentation of “essential” R or Bioconductor packages. By essential, we mean packages that help to form the backbone of R’s capabilities in some area of statistical or computational analysis and are important to an identifiable segment of the R Community. It is likely that a significant proportion of the packages in CRAN Task Views and on Bioconductor will meet these criteria.
Documentation projects might include providing a missing vignette, updating the examples in the package HTML and PDF help, or writing a tutorial (not necessarily in English) to be published in a publicly accessible web page.
To apply, please follow the procedure on the Call For Proposals webpage. In your proposal, please include statements affirming that you have already contacted the package maintainers, that they would support your efforts and will incorporate your contributions where applicable, and that you will publish your work under a license that is agreeable to the package authors.
Note: Kaizen 改善 is a Japanese word that describes the concept of continuous improvement. Look here and here for discussions of kaizen philosophy and history.