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Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

ethord 0.1.0 (2026-01-14)

Major Changes - Complete Dataset Restructuring

This release represents a breaking change with a complete restructuring of the package datasets to provide more granular and structured access to ETH Board Open Research Data (ORD) program information.

Removed Datasets

The following datasets from version 0.0.3 have been removed and replaced with a new structure:

  • portal - Project metadata from ORD portal
  • docs_detail - Detailed project information
  • docs_proposal - Project proposal documents
  • docs_report - Project report data

New Dataset Structure

The package now provides 10 structured datasets organized by data type:

Application Data
  • application_budget - Budget information from project applications (78 projects, 16 variables)
    • Personnel costs (senior staff, postdocs, PhDs, students, technicians)
    • Material, travel, publication, and other costs
    • Total budget per project
  • application_ethics - Ethics-related information from applications (77 projects)
    • Human subjects research declarations
    • Animal research declarations
    • Recombinant DNA usage
    • Hazardous materials handling
  • application_metadata - Core project metadata (105 projects, comprehensive variables)
    • Project titles, acronyms, abstracts
    • Keywords and descriptions
    • Start dates and duration
    • Funding amounts requested
  • application_metadata_applicants - Detailed applicant information (114 records)
    • Applicant names, titles, ORCID IDs
    • Institutions, departments, laboratories
    • Primary vs. secondary applicants
  • application_metadata_keywords - Project keywords (304 keyword entries)
    • Structured keyword associations
    • Searchable by project
  • application_metadata_work_packages - Work package descriptions (274 entries)
    • Detailed work package information per project
Reporting Data
  • report_metadata - Metadata from project reports (64 reports)
    • Reporting periods
    • Project progress information
  • report_metadata_coapplicants - Co-applicant information from reports (133 entries)
    • Co-applicant details and roles
  • report_output - Project outputs and deliverables (1034 output records)
    • Publications, datasets, software
    • Presentations and other research outputs
    • Organized by output category and metrics
Cross-Reference Data
  • project_mapping - Maps projects across datasets (77 projects)
    • Project IDs and categories (Contribute, Explore, Establish)
    • Cross-reference between application and report data

Data Improvements

Data Quality Enhancements

  • Standardized date formats - All dates converted to YYYY-MM-DD format
  • Removed empty placeholder columns - Cleaner, more focused datasets
  • Consistent project identifiers - project_id used across all datasets for joining
  • Cleaned edge cases - Better handling of missing values and data inconsistencies
  • Tidy data structure - Normalized tables following tidy data principles

Data Processing Pipeline

  • Added comprehensive data transformation pipeline (data_raw/01_transform.R)
  • Implemented data cleaning procedures (data_raw/02_clean.R)
  • Created data processing and ID management (data_raw/03_process.R)
  • Automated pipeline execution (data_raw/run_all.R)

Package Infrastructure

Technical Improvements

  • Updated minimum R version requirement to R >= 4.1.0 (required for native pipe |>)
  • Added package dependencies: dplyr, tidyr, stringr, lubridate, purrr, readr, fs
  • Excluded raw data files from package build for portability
  • Added comprehensive package documentation
  • Created CLAUDE.md for AI-assisted development

Documentation

  • Complete rewrite of README with new dataset structure
  • Updated all dataset documentation with roxygen2
  • Added data dictionary with 98+ variable definitions
  • Improved variable descriptions and metadata

Migration Guide

Users of version 0.0.3 will need to update their code:

Old Code (v0.0.3)

library(ethord)

# Access portal data
portal |>
  filter(category == "Contribute")

New Code (v0.1.0)

library(ethord)

# Access application metadata
application_metadata |>
  left_join(project_mapping, by = "project_id") |>
  filter(project_category == "Contribute")

# Access budget information
application_budget |>
  left_join(project_mapping, by = "project_id")

# Access research outputs
report_output |>
  left_join(project_mapping, by = "project_id")

Key Changes for Users

  1. Join datasets using project_id - Datasets are now normalized; use joins to combine information
  2. Use project_mapping for categories - Project categories (Contribute/Explore/Establish) are in project_mapping
  3. More granular access - Access specific data types directly instead of one large table
  4. Better column names - All variables follow consistent naming conventions

Data Source

All data extracted from official ETH Board Open Research Data (ORD) program documentation including: - Project application forms - Scientific reports - Intermediate reports - Project metadata from the ORD portal

Notes

  • Raw JSON extraction files are available in the GitHub repository but excluded from the package build
  • Data processing scripts are located in data_raw/ for reproducibility
  • All datasets available as both .rda (R format) and .csv (portable format) in inst/extdata/

ethord 0.0.3 (2025-07-28)

Changes

  • Updated DOI
  • Fixed date formatting to YYYY-MM-DD
  • Fixed broken download links
  • Removed applicant gender variables for privacy
  • Added example visualization plot
  • Updated package website configuration

ethord 0.0.2

Initial release with portal, docs_detail, docs_proposal, and docs_report datasets.