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retroharmonize

INFRA · APIS
Velocity0.0

Ex Post Survey Data Harmonization

github.com/dataobservatory-eu/retroharmonize ↗

Survey harmonization tooling that spent its last release earning its way back onto CRAN.

survey-datadata-harmonizationlabelled-datareproducibilitycran-maintenancer-package
◆Current state
retroharmonize handles retrospective harmonization of survey microdata — reconciling value codes, value labels, variable names, and missing-value ranges across waves so separate surveys can be joined or panelled reproducibly. The most recent release was not about any of that: the package had been archived from CRAN when a dependency was archived, and the work went into refactoring the labelled_spss_survey vctrs integration, separating core, print, arithmetic, and vctrs methods, and passing checks across five platforms plus R-devel.
◆Where it's heading
The design bet has been constant since the first release — comprehensive S3 classes that carry labels and missing-value semantics through every transformation, so the harmonization is documented rather than reconstructed. What has changed is where effort goes. Early releases added harmonization functions and a worked Arab Barometer case study; recent ones are code quality and CRAN survival. Note that the version numbering in this feed is not monotonic: 0.1.13 was released roughly nine months before 0.1.7, so version order here does not indicate release order.
◆Prediction
Having just restored CRAN availability through a refactor rather than a feature, the near-term work is most likely consolidation of the vctrs integration the notes describe rather than new harmonization functions.

◆Recent moves

  1. 3mo ago

    CRAN modernisation release

    Restores CRAN availability after the package was archived along with a dependency, on the back of substantial internal refactoring of the vctrs integration and a cleaner split between core, print, arithmetic, and vctrs methods. No new harmonization capability, but for a package whose users install from CRAN, being installable again is the change that matters.

    View source ↗
  2. 7mo ago

    Release candidate; notes cite code quality with no detail

    A one-line entry claiming code quality improvements and specifying none. It reads as a staging step toward the CRAN restoration that followed four months later.

    View source ↗
  3. 4y ago

    Improved documentation

    A three-line entry covering documentation, more consistent parameters, and reading STATA files. The parameter consistency is user-facing, though the notes are too thin to establish whether STATA support arrived here or was merely documented.

    View source ↗
  4. 5y ago

    0.1.7 With case study on harmonizing Arab Barometer surveys

    The most substantive feature release in the window: harmonize_var_names() with suggestion helpers for systematic renaming across a list of surveys, subset_waves() for working with a single wave, perl-style regex in harmonize_values(), and a date-harmonization bug fix. The Arab Barometer vignette that ships alongside is the package arguing its case on real multi-country survey data.

    View source ↗
  5. 5y ago

    retroharmonize 0.1.13 is on CRAN

    The first CRAN release, restating the package's goal rather than describing new work. It is a distribution milestone on top of the capability introduced two months earlier, and the moment the tooling became installable for the survey researchers it targets.

    View source ↗
  6. 6y ago

    0.1.0 Retrospective harmonization of survey data files in R

    ⚡ SPARK

    The founding release, and the one that sets the approach every later version builds on: harmonization of value codes, value labels, and missing-value ranges carried through S3 classes so the transformations are recorded rather than applied and forgotten.

    View source ↗