DCQC is a Shiny app that helps data editors carry out structured quality control of the data and code archived alongside a manuscript. It turns the SORTEE guidelines for data and code quality control into a working checklist: fifteen items across six stages, each with the full guideline text, a Yes/No verdict, and a comment box.
This is the repository for the dedicated website that produces a HTML output of the report: https://eivimeycook.github.io/DCQC/. The app is compiled to WebAssembly with shinylive, so the entire R session runs inside the reviewer's own browser tab — no installation, no account, and nothing uploaded to a server. For the package version, which produces a PDF report, install from SORTEE/DCQC.
- Implements a published standard. The checklist is a direct implementation of Pick et al. (2026), so reviews are comparable across editors and journals.
- Six stages, chosen at launch. Reviewing only archived data? You are never shown the code items.
- Guideline text inline. Each item shows the full wording, with links to recommended repositories and licence choosers, so you are not switching between documents.
- Comment box on every item. The verdicts summarise; the comments are where you record what was missing, what you fixed, and what the authors must address.
- Self-contained HTML report. Opens in a new tab with a one-click download, and carries print styling so it converts cleanly to PDF.
- Runs entirely in the browser. No R, no install, no server, nothing uploaded.
Open https://eivimeycook.github.io/DCQC/. Give it a moment on first load — the browser is downloading an R runtime — then:
- Set up the review. Enter the paper title, your name, and the journal, and tick the stages you are reviewing.
- Work through the checklist. Yes/No and a comment for each item.
- Click "View HTML Report". The report opens in a new tab. Use the download button at the top to save it, or print to PDF.
Items in unselected stages, and items you leave unanswered, are omitted from the report rather than counted as failures.
| Stage | Focus | Items |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Data must be archived and adhere to FAIR guiding principles | 1–5 |
| 2 | Archived data corresponds with the data reported in the manuscript | 6 |
| 3 | Code must be archived and adhere to FAIR guiding principles | 7–11 |
| 4 | Archived code corresponds with the workflow reported in the manuscript | 12 |
| 5 | Archived code runs with the archived data | 13 |
| 6 | Results can be computationally reproduced by running the archived code | 14–15 |
Stages 1 and 3 cover deposition in an open repository with a citable DOI, licensing, completeness, non-proprietary formats, and metadata. Stages 2 and 4 check that what is archived matches what the manuscript claims. Stages 5 and 6 cover execution and computational reproducibility of numbers and figures, with room to record any tolerance applied — for example the percentage-discrepancy measure of Hardwicke et al. (2021).
| Web version (this repo) | R package | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | https://eivimeycook.github.io/DCQC/ | SORTEE/DCQC |
| Install | None | R, plus Pandoc and LaTeX |
| Report format | Self-contained HTML | |
| Best for | A one-off review, a reviewer without R, teaching and workshops | Routine editorial use, or PDFs to attach to a decision letter |
Both present identical checklist wording, so a review done in one is directly comparable to a review done in the other.
DCQC/
├── inst/DCQC/ # app source
│ ├── ui.R # layout and checklist cards
│ ├── server.R # stage logic and HTML report builder
│ ├── global.R
│ ├── utilities/create_card.R # card helper and guideline text
│ └── www/circle_black.png
├── docs/ # deployed site, generated by shinylive
├── R/runApp.R
├── man/
├── DESCRIPTION
└── LICENSE.md
Please file issues and feature requests at https://github.com/EIvimeyCook/DCQC/issues. Pull requests are welcome.
Changes to the wording of the checklist items should go upstream to SORTEE/DCQC — this repository tracks the published guidelines rather than diverging from them. Fixes to the web build belong here.
Please cite the guidelines the app implements:
Pick, J. L., Allen, B. J., Bachelot, B., Bairos-Novak, K. R., Brand, J. A., Class, B., Dallas, T., D'Amelio, P. B., Fenollosa, E., Fernández-Juricic, E., Gomes, D. G. E., Grainger, M. J., Guillemaud, T., John, C., Krasnow, R., Lagisz, M., Lequime, S., Maynard, D. S., Nakagawa, S., O'Dea, R. E., Paquet, M., Petitjean, Q., Sánchez-Tójar, A., van Dis, N. E., Wilson, L. A. B., & Ivimey-Cook, E. R. (2026). The SORTEE guidelines for data and code quality control in ecology and evolutionary biology. Peer Community Journal, 6, e20. https://doi.org/10.24072/pcjournal.687
A machine-readable CITATION.cff is included, so GitHub's
"Cite this repository" button gives formatted APA and BibTeX.
Edward R. Ivimey-Cook — e.ivimeycook@gmail.com — ORCID 0000-0003-4910-0443
Released under the MIT License.