To browse ecosystem condition indicators, please visit the ecRxiv web app.
Browse source files, please switch to the main branch.
- 15.01.2026 We now have a new submission workflow whic is hopefully easier to use and requires less git knowledge
- 19.12.2025 ecRxiv was used to document ecosystem condition indicators for the Norwegian pilot condition account. The report can be found here
- 19.12.2025 ecRxiv maintainer and inventor Anders Kolstad recently won an award for good open science pratices based on his work with ecRxiv.
To browse ecosystem condition indicators, please visit the ecRxiv web app. Or, to browse source files (raw data files or scripts), please switch to the main branch. You can also look up the histories for published indicators, such as code reviews and comments, by going to the issues tab and in the Labels filter, search and select for indicatorID's.
On this site (this GitHub repository) you can submit technical documentation and ecological justification for your ecosystem condition indicator(s) and have it published on an online web application in a standardised format along side other indicators from anywhere in the world.
The documentation must be submitted in the form of a quarto file (.qmd) following our template. The indicator metadata is embedded in the same .qmd file, in the top YAML. The .qmd wil render to HTML.
Please see you author tutorial video, and/or read the part below.
(to update an existing indicator, jump to point 8)
- Fork the template (default) branch of this repository (repo). The main branch contains a lot of files, so we keep the template files in a clean branch of the repo. That way your fork will look a lot cleaner. Eventually your files will go into the main branch. Note that personal users can only fork a repo once (at a time). Organisational users can fork as many times they want, so you can for example have one fork per indicator. An alternative is to have one fork on your personal user, where you rouitinely synchronise the template branch, and use other branches on that fork for individual indicators.
- Add your work to your fork. Document your indicator using our templatets. Although it is possible to edit the files in your fork directly through GitHub in the web browser, most users will prefer to make a local copy (called a clone) of the repo and edit files in a separate software, such as RStudio or Positron. Now, you can either start working on the indicator here, from scratch, and let your ecRxiv-fork be the home for this indicator. Alternatively you can keep you work in a seperate repo and just copy the work over to this fork, altough this requires a bit more manual work.
Smaller data files can be stored in the
data/folder. Please also adhere to the recommended terminology. The metadata is added to the top yaml of the quarto file. Not all the terms are that well defined yet, such as the open scienjce badges, but try and fill it out as best you can. - Render the quarto file to html. All qmd's submitted to ecRxiv needs to be renderable by anyone. One reason for this is so that ecRxiv can do the appropriate typesetting and formatting later. This means that qmd's should not take too long to render. Consider bypassing certain code chuncks (set
eval: false) that contain heavy operations - run them once and store the output files underdata/for so to read it back. It also means that code chuncks that read data which are not reachable from anywhere, also needs to be set toeval: false. - Start a pull request (PR) from your forked repo to the
submissionbranch in this repo. Give the PR a reasonable name that contains the indicator ID. ecRxiv administrators will be automatically alerted via email. - Review and code review. Administrators will check that the submission (the PR) is in order, that all files have been named in the correct way and that the work followns the structure given by the template etc. If you have submitted data and code, this review will also include a code review, checking that the code is able to locate the data and to run, and that proper code annotation is provided. Author will be asked to revise the PR until it reaches the requirements set by the administrators.
- Acceptance and typesetting. After getting accepted, the PR will be merged into a landing branch where ecRxiv administrators will fix some things like folder structure, adding stable html for each version of the indicator, and fix open science badges or other formatting issues if needed. If relevant, than authors will get the chance to review any changes made in this step before the indicator documentation is move into the main branch and deployed on the web app.
- Community review. The publicly available documentation is now subject to voluntary review, for which there are separate guidelines.
- Iterative process - updating an indicator. You can revise your documentation and update the indicator. To update an indicator, either (a) reapeat step 1, or (b) pick up your work from you original fork. If (a), it's a good idea to copy the relevant published versions of the indicator documentation over from the main branch, and add your updates to that/those files. If (b), then also make sure you replace the content of the qmd file with the published version. Revisions result in the creation of a new version number, but the indicator ID remains the same. A stable HTML (and URL) is kept for all version.
There is a Q&A where you can ask questions if you get stuck. If you already know there is a bug, or you have suggestsion for improving ecRxiv, you may raise an issue using the FEEDBACK form. We are grateful for any contributions, feedback and questions.
Indicator reviews are handled through GitHub Issues. Got to the issues tab and select New Issue. If you are adding a complete review, similar to peer reviewing a scientific article, use the INDICATOR REVIEW FORM. If you just want to add a comment and a more simple review, use the FEEDBACK form.
Ecosystem condition indicators are used in ecosystem condition assessments and accounts to monitor the quality and integrity of nature. These assessments and accounts can be important policy instruments that guide nature governance. When presented in reports aimed for managers and policy makers, indicators are often described just enough for them to be interpretable. However, indicator calculations/designs are often quite technical and include many steps that cannot be described fully in a report that may include several indicators and indices. There is a need to document these workflows in order to validate and review their soundness and relevance for describing ecosystem condition. This documentation will also be a benefit to the ecosystem condition indicator community of practice because it makes it easier to learn from each other and develop the field quicker.
This is for ecRxiv administrators who first come incontact with a new PR. Open a new issue on GitHub and chose the PR review - checklist template. Follow the instructions there.