c4bi: Coding for broader impact

Leveraging coding skills for effective stakeholder communication

Daniel B. Turner1,2,3, Jocelyn E. Behm1, Payton M. Phillips1, Victoria A. Ramirez1, and Matthew R. Helmus1

1Integrative Ecology Lab, Department of Biology, Temple University; 2Department of Entomology, Michigan State University; 3Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior Program, Michigan State University

DOI

This package provides template code and case study code and data to create stakeholder reports for ecological research projects. Stakeholder reports are individualized summaries of a research project that are given to stakeholders (eg homeowners, farmers, land managers) to increase effective communication between researchers and the stakeholders property is sampled.

We provide a template R Script and R Markdown file for users to jumpstart the creation of create their own reports. Reports are generated by paired.R Script and RMarkdown files that loop through datasets, rendering unique reports for each stakeholder. Please see the Get Started page for more instructions on using the c4bi package.

We present three case studies using this method to demostrate the breadth of ecological questions and stakeholder groups these reports may apply. The first case study is on a project in Curaçao where we sampled the biodiversity of home gardens (i.e., yards) across the island. The second case study is on a project in southeastern Pennsylvania where we sampled ground-dwelling invertebrates on small organic farms along the Philadelphia urbanization gradient. The third case study examines tick-borne diseases and host diversity in forest patches around southeastern Pennsylvania.

All source code for this project and website can be viewed in our GitHub repository here.

We recommend users of this package first read our publication to understand the conceptual framework behind the project.