R Interface to the Species+ Database.

rcites

An R package to access information from the Speciesplus database via the Speciesplus/CITES Checklist API. The package is available for download from CRAN (stable version) and Github (development version).

Please see the release paper for background information about the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Speciesplus database and basic information about the aim of the package.

Installation

The package can be installed from CRAN:

install.packages("rcites")

The development version can be installed via the remotes :package:

remotes::install_github("ropensci/rcites")

Setup requirements and use

To set up a connection to the CITES Speciesplus database, a personal authentication token is required. Please see the vignette for details how to get a token and how to set the token for package use: Get started with rcites

Additional information about specific use examples are provided for the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana). The package usage for querying multiple species is described in another vignette entitled 'Bulk analysis with rcites'.

Key features

Once the token is set, the package has five key features:

• spp_taxonconcept(): access the Speciesplus taxon concept and retrieve a taxon id
• spp_cites_legislation(): access CITES legislation data
• spp_eu_legislation(): access EU legislation data
• spp_distributions(): access a taxon distribution data
• spp_references(): access a listing reference data

Prefix information

The package functions have three different prefixes:

• set_ for set_token() to initially set the API token
• spp_ for the key features
• rcites_ for helper functions that are called within the key features

Citation information

When citing, please refer to both the package citation and the release paper.

Contributors

• Main contributors

• Reviewers of the package:

  • Noam Ross
  • Margaret Siple

• Editor: Scott Chamberlain

• Reporting issue(s):

  • @FVFaleiro
  • @eveskew
  • @fleurhierink
  • @wajra

Resources

Another package dealing with data from and about CITES, providing access to its wildlife trade database: cites

While creating this package, we greatly benefited from:

1. taxize that inspired the structuring of this repository/package;

2. the httr vignette: Managing secrets, which is extremely helpful for packages dealing with API.

Code of Conduct

Please note that this project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms.

Also, please read the Terms and Conditions of Use of Speciesplus Data: https://speciesplus.net/terms-of-use.