The R package “eseis” – a software toolbox for environmental seismology

Dietze, Michael

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-6-669-2018

Articles | Volume 6, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-6-669-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

From process to signal – advancing environmental...

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-6-669-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 6, issue 3

Research article

|

17 Aug 2018

Research article |

| 17 Aug 2018

The R package “eseis” – a software toolbox for environmental seismology

Michael Dietze

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Final revised paper (published on 17 Aug 2018)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 08 Jan 2018)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'Review of « The R package ’eseis’ – a comprehensive software toolbox for environmental seismology » from M. Dietze', Anonymous Referee #1, 20 Feb 2018
- AC1: 'Response to referee comments', Michael Dietze, 01 May 2018
RC2: 'Review of "The R package 'eseis' - a comprehensive software toolbox for environmental seismology"', Anonymous Referee #2, 25 Apr 2018
- AC2: 'Response to referee comments', Michael Dietze, 01 May 2018

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Michael Dietze on behalf of the Authors (01 May 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (04 May 2018) by Florent Gimbert

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (08 Jun 2018)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Overall this new version of the paper has been greatly improved. I thank the author for the clear answers to my first comments and for the substantial modifications in the manuscript.
All the technical points I raises have been answered and well clarified in the text, especially regarding the main limitations and potential evolutions of the “eseis” package.
My only remaining concern is still related to part 1 and 2. I am still uncomfortable with the way the R language and the “eseis” package are introduced.
To my opinion, the author is emphasizing too much the need for a common language and seems to consider that R is the only appropriate common language (“it is essential to find a common language”, “This common language should be”, “R can serve as the language”, …). Why not considering the R language as one of the suitable language (as is Python) in the geosciences domain? Why such a long emphasis about a common language? One can also consider that the emphasis should rather be on common data format, reproductivity, code versioning, … but not the language for the scripting of the codes.
Also, there is a little bit of a contradiction when the author argues in the introduction for a common language across various disciplines (including seismology), namely targeting the R language, and later states (p6 - l3; p24 - l1, p24 - l16, …) that other analysis tools used in seismology (SAC, Obspy), written in other languages, are more adapted for a wide variety of tasks than “eseis” and should therefore also be used (I fully agree with that). This is rather incoherent with the statement that the community (or “communities”) should go toward a common language. Or, does the author want to express the opinion that in the future we should give up with these existing and quite performant tools and convert them into R codes?

Therefore, I still suggest being less “ambitious” in the introduction and to focus more on the main objective of this contribution which is to present the “eseis” package. I would advise to present, in a much shorter way, why “eseis” has been written in R (giving some of the pertinent arguments about the advantages of the R language) and put much less emphasis on the need for a common language.
The discussion about the potential need for a common language, and the fact that R might be THE one (although I personally consider that Python can also be – but I am perhaps “too much” a seismologist) is of great interest but should be expressed by the author in another dedicated “opinion paper”.

Very minor comment:
P2 – l9 : “R […] is yet exponentially growing in terms of users and provided packages …” Please check that the number of users is indeed growing exponentially. The few curves I found on the web rather show a linear trend during the past ~10 years.

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (11 Jun 2018) by Florent Gimbert

AR by Michael Dietze on behalf of the Authors (19 Jun 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (26 Jun 2018) by Florent Gimbert

ED: Publish as is (04 Jul 2018) by Tom Coulthard (Editor)

AR by Michael Dietze on behalf of the Authors (18 Jul 2018)

Short summary

Environmental seismology is the study of the seismic signals emitted by Earth surface processes. This emerging research field is at the intersection of many Earth science disciplines. The overarching scope requires free integrative software that is accepted across scientific disciplines, such as R. The article introduces the R package "eseis" and illustrates its conceptual structure, available functions, and worked examples.