Data Status Check

Elham Ebrahimi

Assess data quality before ecological reporting

The Data Status Check summarises the completeness, consistency, annotation quality, and spatial and temporal coverage of camera-trap datasets in Camtrap DP format. It highlights potential issues to review before ecological analysis, but does not replace formal schema validation or establish suitability for ecological inference.

Figure 1. From Camtrap DP input to data-quality review and ecological reporting.

Generate a Data Status Check

The example uses a writable copy of the bundled dataset to avoid creating files inside the installed package.

library(camtrapReport)

# Prepare a writable copy of the example data
example_root <- tempfile("camtrapReport-example-")
dir.create(example_root)
file.copy(
  system.file("external", "dataset", package = "camtrapReport"),
  example_root,
  recursive = TRUE
)

# Import and check the dataset
cm <- camData(file.path(example_root, "dataset"))
status(cm, view = TRUE)

status() generates an HTML report and returns its file path invisibly. Set view = FALSE to generate the report without opening it. To specify an output location:

dir.create("reports", showWarnings = FALSE)
status_file <- status(
  cm,
  filename = file.path("reports", "data_status_2026"),
  view = FALSE
)

Note: Existing files with the same name may be overwritten.

Interpret and act on findings

A flagged issue merits investigation but does not necessarily indicate an error. Review the underlying Camtrap DP files, correct records where needed, and rerun camData(..., update = TRUE) followed by status(). The check does not modify the source dataset. Assess suitability for ecological inference separately before generating report(cm).

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Explore example reports

Explore four monitoring projects to see how the Data Status Check presents different datasets. These reports are examples, not universal quality benchmarks.

Leuven

Data Status Check

Open report

Amsterdam Water Supply Dunes

Data Status Check

Open report

Lux National Monitoring

Data Status Check

Open report

MICA Monitoring Project

Data Status Check

Open report

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Inspect results in R

Quality-control summaries are also available through cm$data_status for inspection and further analysis.

# List and inspect available data-status components
names(cm$data_status)

cm$data_status$Spatial
cm$data_status$Temporal
cm$data_status$Essentials
cm$data_status$Annotation
cm$data_status$Validation
cm$data_status$Species
cm$data_status$Visuals

For example, access the species summary table:

cm$data_status$Species$Table

For the next stage, see the Ecological Report guide. For input requirements, see the camData() reference.