A checklist for choosing between #rstats packages
This article is originally published at https://christopherlortie.info
The paradox of choice can at times be a challenge. There are well over 10,000 packages on CRAN now (likely 16,000), and there have been suggestions on how to find what you need but not necessarily on how to choose between alternatives. Here is a brief checklist that I used to contrast two similar packages for doing meta-analyses in R (summarized in a preprint qualitatively).
criteria | item |
regularly maintained | ![]() |
recently updated | ![]() |
package maintainer on GitHub | ![]() |
manual available | ![]() |
vignettes available | ![]() |
used/published in similar projects | ![]() |
aligned workflow | ![]() |
semantics intuitive | ![]() |
contemporary grammar | ![]() |
functions that get the job done | ![]() |
arguments to support needs | ![]() |
visualization options (if needed) | ![]() |
dependencies reported/reasonable | ![]() |
connects to other packages | ![]() |
Implication
It is great to have different choices, and it is important to explore different alternatives because each can lead to potentially different adventures.

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This article is originally published at https://christopherlortie.info
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