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div.hanging-indent{margin-left: 1.5em; text-indent: -1.5em;} </style> </head> <body data-spy="scroll" data-target="#toc"> <div class="container-fluid"> <div class="row"> <header class="col-sm-12 col-lg-3 sidebar sidebar-book"><a class="sr-only sr-only-focusable" href="#content">Skip to main content</a> <div class="d-flex align-items-start justify-content-between"> <h1> <a href="index.html" title="">Bioconductor Packages: Development, Maintenance, and Peer Review</a> </h1> <button class="btn btn-outline-primary d-lg-none ml-2 mt-1" type="button" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#main-nav" aria-expanded="true" aria-controls="main-nav"><i class="fas fa-bars"></i><span class="sr-only">Show table of contents</span></button> </div> <div id="main-nav" class="collapse-lg"> <form role="search"> <input id="search" class="form-control" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search"> </form> <nav aria-label="Table of contents"><h2>Table of contents</h2> <ul class="book-toc list-unstyled"> <li><a class="" href="index.html">Welcome</a></li> <li class="book-part">Package Submissions</li> <li><a class="" href="submission-overview.html">Overview</a></li> <li><a class="" href="bioconductor-package-submissions.html"><span class="header-section-number">1</span> Bioconductor Package Submissions</a></li> <li class="book-part">Package Development Guidelines</li> <li><a class="" href="develop-overview.html">Overview</a></li> <li><a class="" href="package-name.html"><span class="header-section-number">2</span> Package name</a></li> <li><a class="" href="general.html"><span class="header-section-number">3</span> General Bioconductor Package Development</a></li> <li><a class="" href="important-bioconductor-package-development-features.html"><span class="header-section-number">4</span> Important Bioconductor Package Development Features</a></li> <li><a class="" href="readme.html"><span class="header-section-number">5</span> The README file</a></li> <li><a class="" href="description.html"><span class="header-section-number">6</span> The DESCRIPTION file</a></li> <li><a class="" href="namespace.html"><span class="header-section-number">7</span> The NAMESPACE file</a></li> <li><a class="active" href="news.html"><span class="header-section-number">8</span> The NEWS file</a></li> <li><a class="" href="license.html"><span class="header-section-number">9</span> The LICENSE file</a></li> <li><a class="" href="citation.html"><span class="header-section-number">10</span> The CITATION file</a></li> <li><a class="" href="sysdep.html"><span class="header-section-number">11</span> The INSTALL file</a></li> <li><a class="" href="docs.html"><span class="header-section-number">12</span> Documentation</a></li> <li><a class="" href="data.html"><span class="header-section-number">13</span> Package data</a></li> <li><a class="" href="tests.html"><span class="header-section-number">14</span> Unit tests</a></li> <li><a class="" href="r-code.html"><span class="header-section-number">15</span> R code</a></li> <li><a class="" href="other-than-Rcode.html"><span class="header-section-number">16</span> Fortran / C / C++ / Python / Third-Party Code</a></li> <li><a class="" href="shiny.html"><span class="header-section-number">17</span> Shiny apps</a></li> <li><a class="" href="non-software.html"><span class="header-section-number">18</span> Non-Software Packages</a></li> <li><a class="" href="gitignore.html"><span class="header-section-number">19</span> The .gitignore file</a></li> <li><a class="" href="conclusion.html"><span class="header-section-number">20</span> Conclusion</a></li> <li class="book-part">Bioconductor Package Maintenance</li> <li><a class="" href="package-maintenance.html">Overview</a></li> <li><a class="" href="git-version-control.html"><span class="header-section-number">21</span> Git Version Control</a></li> <li><a class="" href="versionnum.html"><span class="header-section-number">22</span> Version Numbering</a></li> <li><a class="" href="troubleshooting-build-report.html"><span class="header-section-number">23</span> Troubleshooting Build Report</a></li> <li><a class="" href="debugging-cc-code.html"><span class="header-section-number">24</span> Debugging C/C++ code</a></li> <li><a class="" href="deprecation.html"><span class="header-section-number">25</span> Deprecation Guidelines</a></li> <li><a class="" href="package-end-of-life-policy.html"><span class="header-section-number">26</span> Package End of Life Policy</a></li> <li><a class="" href="branch-rename-faqs.html"><span class="header-section-number">27</span> Branch Rename FAQs</a></li> <li class="book-part">Package Reviewer Resources</li> <li><a class="" href="reviewer-resources-overview.html">Overview</a></li> <li><a class="" href="review-expectation.html"><span class="header-section-number">28</span> Review Expectations</a></li> <li><a class="" href="reviewtools.html"><span class="header-section-number">29</span> Reviewer Resources and Tools</a></li> <li><a class="" href="review-volunteer-chapter.html"><span class="header-section-number">30</span> Volunteer to Review</a></li> <li class="book-part">Appendix</li> <li><a class="" href="use-devel.html"><span class="header-section-number">A</span> Using the ‘Devel’ Version of Bioconductor</a></li> <li><a class="" href="long-tests.html"><span class="header-section-number">B</span> Long Tests</a></li> <li><a class="" href="querying-web-resources.html"><span class="header-section-number">C</span> Querying Web Resources</a></li> <li><a class="" href="c-fortran.html"><span class="header-section-number">D</span> C and Fortran code</a></li> <li><a class="" href="cmavericks-best-practices.html"><span class="header-section-number">E</span> C++/Mavericks Best Practices</a></li> <li><a class="" href="man-links.html"><span class="header-section-number">F</span> Debug: Links in Rd files</a></li> <li><a class="" href="booknews.html"><span class="header-section-number">G</span> NEWS</a></li> </ul> <div class="book-extra"> <p><a id="book-repo" href="https://github.com/Bioconductor/pkgrevdocs">View book source <i class="fab fa-github"></i></a></p> </div> </nav> </div> </header><main class="col-sm-12 col-md-9 col-lg-7" id="content"><div id="news" class="section level1" number="8"> <h1> <span class="header-section-number">8</span> The NEWS file<a class="anchor" aria-label="anchor" href="#news"><i class="fas fa-link"></i></a> </h1> <p>A <code>NEWS</code> file informs the user of changes in the software that may impact user expectations. It is highly recommended that the developer use plain and concise language to communicate these changes.</p> <p>A <code>NEWS</code> file should keep track of changes, in non-technical language, in the code from one release version to the next. The file can reside in either the package’s top level directory or in the <code>inst/</code> directory. There should be only one <code>NEWS</code> file per package.</p> <p>The following are acceptable locations and formats:</p> <div class="inline-table"><table class="table table-sm"> <thead><tr class="header"> <th align="left">location</th> <th align="left">format</th> </tr></thead> <tbody> <tr class="odd"> <td align="left"><code>./inst/NEWS.Rd</code></td> <td align="left"><span class="math inline">\(\LaTeX\)</span></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td align="left"><code>./inst/NEWS</code></td> <td align="left">formatted text see <code><a href="https://rdrr.io/r/utils/news.html">?news</a></code> </td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td align="left"><code>./inst/NEWS.md</code></td> <td align="left">markdown</td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td align="left"><code>./NEWS.md</code></td> <td align="left">markdown</td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td align="left"><code>./NEWS</code></td> <td align="left">formatted text see <code><a href="https://rdrr.io/r/utils/news.html">?news</a></code> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table></div> <p>Specifics on formatting can be found on the help page for <code><a href="https://rdrr.io/r/utils/news.html">?news</a></code>. <a href="https://bioconductor.org"><em>Bioconductor</em></a> compiles <code>NEWS</code> files from all updated packages to create the semi-annual release announcement. <code>NEWS</code> files <em>must</em> include list elements and <strong>cannot</strong> be plain text files.</p> <p>Here is the version <code>1.24.0</code> <code>NEWS</code> file from <code>SummarizedExperiment</code>:</p> <pre><code>CHANGES IN VERSION 1.24.0 ------------------------- NEW FEATURES o Add 'checkDimnames' argument to SummarizedExperiment() constructor function o Add showAsCell() method for SummarizedExperiment objects. SIGNIFICANT USER-VISIBLE CHANGES o Check the assay dimnames at SummarizedExperiment construction time: The SummarizedExperiment() constructor function now raises an error if one of the supplied assays has rownames and/or colnames that don't match those of the SummarizedExperiment object to construct. </code></pre> <p><strong>Note</strong> that the version documented is the <em>forthcoming</em> release version of the package. For the developer, the <code>NEWS</code> file is a running log of all the changes that lead up to the next release of the package.</p> <p>The user can read the release notes of <code>SummarizedExperiment</code> version <code>1.24.0</code> by running the following:</p> <div class="sourceCode" id="cb8"><pre class="downlit sourceCode r"> <code class="sourceCode R"><span><span class="fu">utils</span><span class="fu">::</span><span class="fu"><a href="https://rdrr.io/r/utils/news.html">news</a></span><span class="op">(</span>package <span class="op">=</span> <span class="st">"SummarizedExperiment"</span>, <span class="va">Version</span> <span class="op">==</span> <span class="st">"1.24.0"</span><span class="op">)</span></span></code></pre></div> <p>During development and after package re-installation, the <code>NEWS</code> file’s formatting can be checked with:</p> <div class="sourceCode" id="cb9"><pre class="downlit sourceCode r"> <code class="sourceCode R"><span><span class="fu">utils</span><span class="fu">::</span><span class="fu"><a href="https://rdrr.io/r/utils/news.html">news</a></span><span class="op">(</span>package<span class="op">=</span><span class="st">"<name of your package>"</span><span class="op">)</span></span></code></pre></div> <p>The function does not fail directly but it will show an output similar to the one below if there are formatting errors that need to be corrected. Note that there are bullet points embedded within the first <code>Text</code> field:</p> <pre><code>Version: 1.2.0 Date: 2018-07-15 Text: Made the following significant changes o added a subsetting method o added a new field to database Version: 1.0.0 Date: 2018-06-15 Text: Fixed bug. Begin indexing from 1 instead of 2 Version: 0.99.0 Date: 2018-05-15 Text: Submitted to Bioconductor</code></pre> </div> <div class="chapter-nav"> <div class="prev"><a href="namespace.html"><span class="header-section-number">7</span> The NAMESPACE file</a></div> <div class="next"><a href="license.html"><span class="header-section-number">9</span> The LICENSE file</a></div> </div></main><div class="col-md-3 col-lg-2 d-none d-md-block sidebar sidebar-chapter"> <nav id="toc" data-toggle="toc" aria-label="On this page"><h2>On this page</h2> <ul class="nav navbar-nav"><li><a class="nav-link" href="#news"><span class="header-section-number">8</span> The NEWS file</a></li></ul> <div class="book-extra"> <ul class="list-unstyled"> <li><a id="book-source" href="https://github.com/Bioconductor/pkgrevdocs/blob/devel/news-file.Rmd">View source <i class="fab fa-github"></i></a></li> <li><a id="book-edit" href="https://github.com/Bioconductor/pkgrevdocs/edit/devel/news-file.Rmd">Edit this page <i class="fab fa-github"></i></a></li> </ul> </div> </nav> </div> </div> </div>  <footer class="bg-primary text-light mt-5"><div class="container"><div class="row"> <div class="col-12 col-md-6 mt-3"> <p>"<strong>Bioconductor Packages: Development, Maintenance, and Peer Review</strong>" was written by Kevin Rue-Albrecht, Daniela Cassol, Johannes Rainer, Lori Shepherd. It was last built on 2025-02-24.</p> </div> <div class="col-12 col-md-6 mt-3"> <p>This book was built by the <a class="text-light" href="https://bookdown.org">bookdown</a> R package.</p> </div> </div></div> </footer><script> (function () { var script = document.createElement("script"); script.type = "text/javascript"; var src = "true"; if (src === "" || src === "true") src = "https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/mathjax/2.7.9/latest.js?config=TeX-MML-AM_CHTML"; if (location.protocol !== "file:") if (/^https?:/.test(src)) src = src.replace(/^https?:/, ''); script.src = src; document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(script); })(); </script><script type="text/x-mathjax-config">const popovers = document.querySelectorAll('a.footnote-ref[data-toggle="popover"]'); for (let popover of popovers) { const div = document.createElement('div'); div.setAttribute('style', 'position: absolute; top: 0, left:0; width:0, height:0, overflow: hidden; visibility: hidden;'); div.innerHTML = popover.getAttribute('data-content'); var has_math = div.querySelector("span.math"); if (has_math) { document.body.appendChild(div); MathJax.Hub.Queue(["Typeset", MathJax.Hub, div]); MathJax.Hub.Queue(function() { popover.setAttribute('data-content', div.innerHTML); document.body.removeChild(div); }) } } </script> </body> </html>