NEWS.md

In peacesciencer: Tools and Data for Quantitative Peace Science Research

peacesciencer 1.1.0

Changes include:

• Package now depends on version 1.6.0 of {stevemisc}. This comes as later versions of R balk at the use of order() on data frames.
• Changes to documentation for clarity/presentation.
• Changes to file compression, where appropriate.
• download_extdata() will download some augmented dyadic minimum distance data for CoW and G-W states from 1886 to 2019.
• Add tss_rivalries as updated rivalry data from 1494 to 2020.
• Fixed a bug in atop_alliance and cow_alliance. It's less of a {peacesciencer} bug, per se, but the raw data that were presented as directed were actually not directed at all. They are now.
• Fixed a bug in add_cow_alliance() that did not honor the temporal bound of the alliance data (i.e. 1816-2012). My b.

peacesciencer 1.0.0

This version has a few odds and ends and a version accelerated to 1.0.0 to coincide with the acceptance of a manuscript describing this package in Conflict Management and Peace Science.

• Clarify add_cow_mids() and add_gml_mids() about the default case-exclusion rules for dyadic analyses.
• Assorted documentation upgrades for clarity.
• The dyadic foreign policy similarity data now have Tau-b estimates. These were generated by me, using valued alliance data, and should be used with some caution (or perhaps not used at all). Check the documentation for add_fpsim() and download_extdata() for more.
• Update national material capabilities data (cow_nmc) to version 6.0.
• Update cow_ddy and gw_ddy, since it's 2022 now.
• Add grh_arms_races for arms race data.
• Amend/update a few items in ps_bib.
• Change ps_cite() to no longer depend on {bib2df}. With it, remove {bib2df} as a package dependency.

peacesciencer 0.7.0

This is a leader-intensive update. Additions/new features include:

• LEAD: a data set on select leader experience and attribute descriptions (LEAD).
• lwuf: a data set from Carter and Smith (2020) measuring leader willingness to use force.
• download_extdata() now also downloads directed leader dyad-year data for all directed leader dyad-years from 1870 to 2015. The data come in two forms. One is all possible (inter-state, leader-overlap) dyadic leader pairings from 1870 to 2015, as presented in the Archigos data. The second standardizes these data to the CoW state system data. It also downloads directed dyad-yer data of chance-corrected measures of dyadic foreign policy similarity. Type ?download_extdata() in the R session after updating for more information.
• create_leaderdyadyears(): create leader dyad-year data (via archigos) for all leader dyad-year combinations from 1870 to 2015. This function leans on remote data available for download in download_extdata(). The function returns either all possible Gleditsch-Ward dyadic leader pairings (standardized to Gleditsch-Ward state system dates) or standardizes the Archigos data to Correlates of War state system member data.
• gml_part: a data set on participant summary information from the GML MID data.
• add_fpsim() adds estimates of dyadic foreign policy similarity to your dyad-year and leader-dyad-year data.
• add_gml_mids() now works with leader-year data. See documentation for more.
• add_spells() will do more general peace spell calculations, though this package will now depend on v. 1.3.0 of {stevemisc}.
• add_lwuf() adds estimates of leader willingness to use force to leader-year and leader-dyad-year analyses.
• add_lead() adds some leader attributes to leader-year or leader-dyad-year analyses.
• gml_mid_dirleaderdisps and gml_mid_ddlydisps include data on leader dyads in conflict.
• declare_attributes() allows users to declare package-specific attributes to outside data they bring to the R session. This allows the user to use many of the shortcuts in this package to their data.
• ps_version() will display version information about the data included in this package.
• false_cow_dyads and false_gw_dyads list a handful of dyads that appear in the same year, but never on the same day in the year. They're used for anti-joining in create_dyadyears().
• leader_codes matches, as well as one can, leader/observation codes in Archigos 4.1, Archigos 2.9, and the LEAD data.

Other changes include:

• Several functions now have leader-year or leader-dyad-year corollaries. Examples here include add_creg_fractionalization(), add_rugged_terrain(), add_democracy(), and more. Some functions, like add_gml_mids(), can be anchored explicitly to leader-level units of analyses. Several other functions (e.g. add_sdp_gdp() and others like it) are fundamentally still state-year or dyad-year functions the extent to which leaders are still nested in states and leader-dyads are just a derivation of inter-state dyads (i.e. leaders are nested in states). Use with some caution with that in mind, though these functions are still useful for leader-level analyses that are interested in some of these covariates for making state-to-state comparisons on top of leader-level analyses.
• The data in cow_sdp_gdp and gw_sdp_gdp are now rounded to three decimal points. These "economic" data are routinely the biggest in the package, and it's because of the decimal points. The justification for this is these data are estimated/simulated anyways and the information loss is at the 1/1000th decimal point. This procedure basically cuts the size of the data to be less than 25% of its original size. This is a huge reduction in disk space.
• "leader-year" (leader_year) is now an attribute. Where appropriate, leader-year and state-year functions are treated the same. For example, the GDP data contained in add_sdp_gdp() are fundamentally state-year, but perhaps a leader-year control of interest even as leaders are nested in states.
• "leader-dyad-year" (leader_dyad_year) is now an attribute. Where appropriate, leader-year and leader-dyad-year functions are treated the same. Where possible/tractable, leader-dyad-year data are explicitly anchored to leader-level units of analysis (e.g. add_gml_mids(), prominently).
• create_leaderyears() works on the observation ID and not the leader ID. Observation IDs are unique to each leader-period, but leader IDs are not.
• The directed leader dyad-year data is indexed by observation ID and not leader ID, per se. This is because leaders can have multiple terms in office.
• add_peace_years() has been superseded by add_spells(). The "superseded" language communicates the function will still work as it has for previous releases, for data types supported by the function, though its development will stop. add_spells() promises to have greater functionality. Communicating these changes via badges brings in {lifecycle} as an imported package.
• archigos data's ccode has been renamed to gwcode to reflect these are actually Gleditsch-Ward state codes.
• The "whittle" functions now work with leader-dyadic conflict data available in the package.
• The package has started taking inventory of non-ASCII characters that appear in the package (e.g. spelling "Wuerttemberg" with the U-umlaut) and replacing them. This is not a functionality issue at all. The problem is CRAN raises a note for every single non-ASCII character it sees and I'd like to avoid the CRAN hammer if I can.
• create_leaderyears(), create_dyadyears(), and create_stateyears() have a built-in argument for subsetting the years returned by the function (subset_years). Use to your discretion.

peacesciencer 0.6.0

• Extend cow_mindist and gw_mindist data, given new {cshapes} updates. Data now run from 1886 to 2019.
• Create cow_capitals and gw_capitals data. Remove capitals data for redundancy. Both capital data sets extended to 2020.
• add_capital_distance() now works with Correlates of War and Gleditsch-Ward data, both dyad-year and state-year.
• Fix bug in add_atop_alliance() that added 0s to years after the ATOP domain. Thanks to @joshuaalley for pointing this out.
• Add/start a helper function file. These are internal functions I may need to write in order to reduce the potential of dependency issues resulting in package archival. This was necessitated by an Oct. 5, 2021 email from Brian Ripley about the slated removal of {lubridate}. Earlier versions of this package uncritically leaned on {lubridate} for functions I could either write myself (i.e. year(), which is now .pshf_year()) or were already duplicated in base functions in R (i.e. ymd(), a wrapper for as.Date() as I use it). With it, {lubridate} is no longer a requirement for this package.
• Upgrade GML conflict data sets to 2.2.1. Fix/update documentation on this.
• Add dispute-level summary of GML conflict data to assist with user-run whittle functions. This is gml_mid_disps.
• Add ps_conflict_type attributes for some conflict data (e.g. CoW-MID, GML).
• Add messages about case exclusion rules to add_cow_mids() and add_gml_mids().
• Add "whittle" class of functions. These include whittle_conflicts_onsets(), whittle_conflicts_fatality(), whittle_conflicts_hostility(), whittle_conflicts_duration(), whittle_conflicts_reciprocation(), whittle_conflicts_startmonth(), and whittle_conflicts_jds(). These are admittedly gnarly function names to type out if you don't have an IDE like RStudio to assist you. Thus, these respective functions come with shortcuts of wc_ (e.g. wc_onsets()). Check the package documentation to see what these are.
• Add show_duplicates() as a diagnostic tool. This function is useful for users who want to do some advanced stuff with data created in {peacesciencer} (e.g. merging in custom data) and want to see if they botched a merge by creating duplicate observations.
• Add/update stuff related to leaders. The archigos data frame now includes some more information about leaders (e.g. name, gender, and year of birth). create_leaderyears() will create leader-year data as well. The next update will expand more on leader functions. For now, the ensuing output from this function is treated as synonymous to state-year data.
• Add download_extdata() as a way of side-stepping package space limitations. Some files will have to be stored remotely and then loaded at the user's discretion, which is what this function will do. This was largely brought on by the CoW trade data (cow_trade_ndy), which is also removed in this update. More data may have to be moved remotely in the future, though this package will endeavor to keep this to a bare minimum. Importantly, download_extdata() keeps inventory of what it is downloading. Data information is included therein. This develop does implicitly assume that the directory in which this package is installed is writable by the user. For like 99% of users, this shouldn't be a problem (and executing .libPaths() should confirm that). Do reach out if it is.
• Remove country name from creg data frame.

peacesciencer 0.5.0

• Add {bib2df} as package dependency. Force upgraded version of {stevemisc} as package dependency.
• Add LazyDataCompression: xz to DESCRIPTION
• Add "system" attributes to create_dyadyears(), create_statedays(), and create_stateyears().
• Add add_cow_wars() function.
• Add add_ccode_to_gw(). Fix underlying data for cow_gw_years. Add gw_cow_years.
• Add add_strategic_rivalries().
• Add add_ucdp_acd(). With it, update ucdp_acd data for functionality.
• Add add_rugged_terrain().
• Add cow_trade_ndy data. With it, update add_cow_trade() function for speed upgrades.
• Add cow_war_inter, cow_war_intra data.
• Add creg data.
• Add gwcode_democracy data. add_democracy() now takes CoW or G-W data.
• Add hief data.
• Add rugged data.
• Add td_rivalries data.
• Add ps_cite() and ps_bib. Remove citations.
• Add log-transformed GDP per capita estimates to cow_sdp_gdp and gw_sdp_gdp. Update add_sdp_gdp() to reflect this change.
• Clarify documentation for add_contiguity() for why non-contiguous dyads are 0s and not 6s. Briefly: I don't think of these data as ordinal and I don't encourage the researcher to think of them as ordinal either.
• Expand add_peace_years(), which now works with UCDP conflict data.
• filter_prd() is now a shortcut for add_contiguity() and/or add_cow_majors() if it is called near the top of the pipe (i.e. before the user executed the commands required to calculate politically relevant dyad status).
• Fix bug in add_nmc() (and cow_nmc). -9 is now explicitly NA, as it should have been.
• Fix some typos/incomplete information in documentation. These concerned references to scholarship on these topics.
• Patch add_peace_years(), which can now be used anywhere in the chain of commands (instead of just last). add_peace_years() is also a bit more "general" and includes a derivation of the sbtscs() function from the {stevemisc} package.
• Remove mandatory "system" calls in add_minimum_distance() and add_sdp_gdp(). These merges now lean on system attributes declared in create_dyadyears() and create_stateyears().
• Remove add_mids(). Use add_gml_mids() instead.
• Update cow_ddy and its documentation.

peacesciencer 0.4.0

• Add cow_mid_ddydisps, cow_mid_dirdisps, and cow_mid_disps data.
• Add gml_mid_ddydisps data.
• Add add_cow_mids() function.
• Add add_gml_mids() function.
• Add add_peace_years() function.
• Deprecate add_mids(). Use add_gml_mids() instead.
• Assign ps_data_type == "dyad_year" as attribute to cow_mid_dirdisps and gml_dirdisp. This allows {peacesciencer} functions for these data sets.
• File compression for data files (again)

peacesciencer 0.3.0

• Add atop_alliance (directed dyad-year) data
• Add archigos data
• Add cow_sdp_gdp and gw_sdp_gdp data
• Add ucdp_acd data
• Add ucdp_onsets data
• Add add_archigos() function
• Add add_atop_alliance() function
• Add add_minimum_distance() function. For now, this has no default. You must specify "gw" or "cow".
• Add add_sdp_gdp() function. For now, this has no default. You must specify "gw" or "cow".
• Add add_ucdp_onset() function.
• Add "stops" that force the correct merge on the correct system code. In most applications, this is Correlates of War codes.
• File compression for data files (again)
• Fixed bug in filter_prd(). Past versions of my code had treated non-contiguous dyads as 6s. Here, they're 0s. That created situations where I wasn't filtering anything at all with this function.
• Rename variables in cow_alliance to distinguish from ATOP equivalents.

peacesciencer 0.2.0

• Fix stupid mistake(s) in README.
• File compression for the data files.
• Add Correlates of War intergovernmental organizations data.
• Add function for adding Correlates of War intergovernmental organizations data.
• Add Correlates of War trade data (state-year and dyad-year).
• Add minimum distance data
• Add citations data frame for assistance in properly citing things.
• Add create_statedays() function.

peacesciencer 0.1.0

• Initial developmental release

peacesciencer documentation built on March 31, 2023, 8:37 p.m.