A whole new frontend! As you may have noticed, we have given the WebUI for R-universe a big refresh. This is the biggest UX overhaul since the beginning of the project. The old “dashboard” had become a bit convoluted over the years as features and ideas were added and removed while the project was taking shape.

Finding the right tool for the job The hardest part about effectively using R is finding the best packages for the problem you are trying to solve. I think this is even more important than being fluent in the language itself, which you will pick up along the way as you start using R more frequently. However, building your code on reliable foundations is essential for good results, and difficult to fix later on in a project.

R-universe now has search! We made a series of structural improvements in r-universe to make it easier to browse and discover interesting R packages and articles. Most notably, the r-universe.dev landing page has been overhauled: you can now search directly for any name or keyword across the entire ecosystem: The homepage also lists the popular topics and organizations, and links to recently active packages, articles, and maintainers.

[It’s time to embrace change. Today Europe PMC proudly unveils a new website, packed with useful features. ]{style=“font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;”}[The improved Europe PMC offers a better search and reading experience, as well as better access to data.]{style=“font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;”} []{style=“font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;

Quick note on Frankenplace, a cool search tool that displays the geographic distribution of documents that match the user's query as a heatmap. Details of how the tool works are given in: At the heart of the method is a discrete global grid that divides the world up into small areas of the same size.

[We are always listening to what our users have to say. And this week we are happy to present you a ]{style=“font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;”}[Beta version of Europe PMC]{style=“color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;”}[ with lots of improvements based on extensive user feedback. ]{style=“font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;

[Reading scientific papers can be very time consuming. So you should not waste a minute searching for the relevant literature. Thanks to the cutting-edge search technologies Europe PMC helps you find facts and evidence in research publications in a blink of an eye. Search results now display snippets – highlights from the article matching your query.

[Modern scientists are busier than ever. Their typical days are filled not only with experimental work, but also with teaching, supervising, mentoring, grant applications, budget planning… The list goes on and on. No wonder there is barely any time left to stay on top of the field. Keeping track of published literature is made easier by following these simple tips:]{style=“font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt;

[Imagine you are exploring a new topic. You start by searching for relevant papers in the field. You type your query, click the search button, and end up with thousands of scientific articles, waiting to be read. How do you identify which papers to focus on?]{style=“background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none;

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” – Arthur C. Clarke Sometimes the changes we release on Europe PMC are not immediately obvious! For the last few months we’ve been working hard to migrate our search to a technology called Solr.