First release

• 2019-01-23, add details about requirements for packges running on all major platforms and added new section to package categories.

• 2019-01-22, add details to the guide for authors about the development stage at which to submit a package.

• 2018-12-21, inclusion of an explicity policy for conflict of interest (for reviewers and editors).

• 2018-12-18, added more guidance for editor on how to look for reviewers.

• 2018-12-04, onboarding was renamed Software Peer Review.

More details

As regards testing,

• Our guide now clearly states conditions in which to add continuous integration for Windows CI.

• We now do not only recommend httr but also crul and curl over RCurl for HTTP requests and suggest using the rOpenSci packages vcr and webmockr for testing.

• We have added a rule of thumb for package coverage: "Test coverage below 75% will likely require additional tests or explanation before being sent for review." on top of stating that it is best practice when all key functionalities are tested.

• We now require that packages with Shiny apps use a unit-testing framework such as shinytest to test that interactive interfaces behave as expected.

As regards documentation,

• We now demand the use of codemetar to create a codemeta.json file of package metadata at the root of the package repository.

• We now recommend using a structure for the release notes, and recommend to call it NEWS.md rather than NEWS.

• We encourage the use of repostatus.org badges.

• Using roxygen2 for documenting packages is now an explicit requirement, as is documenting the returning type of a function.

We have also made these updates about package building.

• We have made it explicit that packages should run on all major platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux. Exceptions may be granted packages that interact with system-specific functions, or wrappers for utilities that only operate on limited platforms, but authors should make every effort for cross-platform compatibility, including system-specific compilation, or containerization of external utilities.

• Our guidance now states that argument naming and order should be consistent across functions that use similar inputs.

Of particular interest are also these changes to our policies and process.

• We have added an explicity policy about conflict of interests for reviewers and editors.

• We have added expected timelines to the reviewer, author and editor guides, for instance editors are expected to perform editor checks within 5 working days.

• We've extended our scope to include packages that wrap utility programs used for scientific research.