Six Years of Shiny in Research - Collaborative Development of Web Tools in R

Abstract:

The use of Shiny in research publications is investigated over the six and a half years since the appearance of this popular web application framework for R, which has been utilised in many varied research areas. While it is demonstrated that the complexity of Shiny applications is limited by the background architecture, and real security concerns exist for novice app developers, the collaborative benefits are worth attention from the wider research community. Shiny simplifies the use of complex methodologies for people of different specialities, at the level of proficiency appropriate for the end user. This enables a diverse community of users to interact efficiently, and utilise cutting edge methodologies. The literature reviewed demonstrates that complex methodologies can be put into practice without insisting on investment in professional training, for a comprehensive understanding from all participants. It appears that Shiny opens up concurrent benefits in communication between those who analyse data and other disciplines, that would enrich much of the peer-reviewed research.

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Published

Jan. 13, 2021

Received

Oct 20, 2019

DOI

10.32614/RJ-2021-004

Volume

Pages

12/2

155 - 162

CRAN packages used

Shiny, ggplot2, Reactlog, ShinyTester, rHyperSpec, ShinyStan

CRAN Task Views implied by cited packages

Graphics, Phylogenetics, TeachingStatistics

Footnotes

    Reuse

    Text and figures are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0. The figures that have been reused from other sources don't fall under this license and can be recognized by a note in their caption: "Figure from ...".

    Citation

    For attribution, please cite this work as

    Kasprzak, et al., "The R Journal: Six Years of Shiny in Research - Collaborative Development of Web Tools in R", The R Journal, 2021

    BibTeX citation

    @article{RJ-2021-004,
      author = {Kasprzak, Peter and Mitchell, Lachlan and Kravchuk, Olena and Timmins, Andy},
      title = {The R Journal: Six Years of Shiny in Research - Collaborative Development of Web Tools in R},
      journal = {The R Journal},
      year = {2021},
      note = {https://doi.org/10.32614/RJ-2021-004},
      doi = {10.32614/RJ-2021-004},
      volume = {12},
      issue = {2},
      issn = {2073-4859},
      pages = {155-162}
    }