ArticleRoyal Society open science2023
Expansion and evolution of the R programming language.
Article in Royal Society open science, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
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- Development of a nomogram to predict in-hospital mortality of trauma patients in the ICU: an analysis of the MIMIC-IV database.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Transcriptomic Identification and Validation of NDUFS2 in Acute Rat TMJ Synovitis and Its Functional Role in LPS-Induced Synovial Fibroblast Inflammation.Journal of inflammation research · 2026Article
- Identification and validation of prognostic genes related to centrosome amplification in multiple myeloma.PeerJ · 2026Article
- Integrated molecular subtyping and functional analysis of circ_0001946/miR-7-5p axis reveals a glucose metabolism-linked regulatory mechanism in ovarian cancer.World journal of surgical oncology · 2025Article
- Significant glomerular IgM deposition predicts poorer kidney outcomes in lupus nephritis compared with other forms of immune complex deposits.Lupus science & medicine · 2025Article
- The microbiota extends the reproductive lifespan of mice by safeguarding the ovarian reserve.Cell host & microbe · 2025Article
- Assessing Plasma C-Peptide Levels and Their Relationship with Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Prediabetes and Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes.Biomedicines · 2025Article
- Distinguishing acute leukemia subtypes: The role of hsa_circ_0012152 and hsa_circ_0020093 in peripheral blood.Oncology letters · 2025Article
- Article
- Identification of Novel Biomarkers and Potential Therapeutic Targets for Systemic Sclerosis: An Integrated Analysis of Plasma Proteome-Wide Mendelian Randomization and Transcriptome.Journal of inflammation research · 2025Article
- Association between house dust endotoxin and kidney injury: findings from the national health and nutrition examination survey (NHANES) 2005-2006.International urology and nephrology · 2024Article
- Clinical significance of glomerular IgM deposit in IgA nephropathy: a 5-year follow-up study.Renal failure · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Languages change over time, driven by creation of new words and cultural pressure to optimize communication. Programming languages resemble written language but communicate primarily with computer hardware rather than a human audience. I tested whether there were detectable changes over time in use of R, a mature, open-source programming language used for scientific computing. Across 393 142 GitHub repositories published between 2014 and 2021, I extracted 143 409 288 R functions, programming 'verbs', pairing linguistic and ecological analyses to detect change to diversity and composition of functions used over time. I found the number of R functions in use increased and underwent substantial change, driven primarily by the popularity of the 'tidyverse' collection of community-written extensions. I provide evidence that users can change the nature of programming languages, with patterns that match known processes from natural languages and genetic evolution. In R, there appear to be selective pressures for increased analytic complexity and R functions in decline that are not yet extinct (extinction debts). R's evolution towards the tidyverse may also represent the start of a division into two distinct dialects, which may impact the readability and continuity of analytic and scientific inquiries codified in R, as well as the language's future.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.