Data Status Report

Elham Ebrahimi

Purpose of the Data Status Report

The Data Status Report provides an overview of the quality, completeness, and readiness of a camera-trap dataset before generating the final Ecological Report. It helps users check whether the main input files, metadata fields, deployment information, observation records, taxonomy, timestamps, annotation information, and spatial data are complete and internally consistent.

This report is especially useful as a first quality-control step. It allows users to identify missing values, duplicated records, invalid timestamps, incomplete metadata, spatial issues, and inconsistencies between deployments and observations. Based on these checks, users can decide whether the dataset is ready for reporting or whether further correction is needed before ecological analyses are performed.

Figure 1 summarises how camtrapReport checks the readiness of a camera-trap dataset before ecological reporting. After the data are loaded with camData(), the status() function runs automated checks on the main input files, metadata, deployments, observations, timestamps, taxonomy, spatial information, and annotation records. The output helps users identify potential issues and decide whether the dataset is ready for generating the final Ecological Report.

Figure 1. Workflow for generating a Data Status Report from camera-trap data using camtrapReport.

library(camtrapReport)

# Copy the bundled example dataset to a writable temporary directory
example_root <- tempfile("camtrapReport-example-")
dir.create(example_root, recursive = TRUE)

example_source <- system.file(
  "external",
  "dataset",
  package = "camtrapReport",
  mustWork = TRUE
)

copied <- file.copy(
  from = example_source,
  to = example_root,
  recursive = TRUE,
  copy.mode = FALSE
)

stopifnot(
  isTRUE(copied),
  dir.exists(file.path(example_root, "dataset"))
)

# Load the example camera-trap data
cm <- camData(
  file.path(example_root, "dataset"),
  update = TRUE
)

# Generate and view the Data Status Report
status(cm, view = TRUE)

When view = TRUE, the generated report is opened in the browser. This provides a quick, human-readable overview of dataset quality, completeness, and consistency.

The function also invisibly returns the path to the HTML report. By default, data_status.html and its intermediate data_status.Rmd file are written to the R session’s temporary directory. Use filename to give another file stem or a path inside an existing output directory:

dir.create(
  "reports",
  recursive = TRUE,
  showWarnings = FALSE
)

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

An existing file with the same name may be replaced. Use a deliberate, versioned filename when reports from multiple processing runs must be retained.

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Example Data Status Reports

Below are previews of Data Status Reports generated with camtrapReport for different camera-trap monitoring projects. These examples illustrate the presentation of dataset completeness and potential issues. Click a preview to open the corresponding complete report. Reports can also be generated locally from a Camtrap DP dataset using the workflow described above.

Leuven

Data Status Report

Open report

Amsterdam Water Supply Dunes

Data Status Report

Open report

Lux National Monitoring

Data Status Report

Open report

MICA Monitoring Project

Data Status Report

Open report

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Exploring data-status results in R

The results of the data-status checks are also stored inside the camReport object. Users can explore these results directly in R through cm$data_status. This is useful when users want to inspect the underlying tables, extract summaries, or use the quality-control outputs in another workflow.

# Explore all data-status outputs stored in the camReport object
cm$data_status

# Show the 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, the species table can be inspected to check which species were detected and how many captures were recorded for each species.

# View species summary table
cm$data_status$Species$Table

Together, status(cm, view = TRUE) and cm$data_status provide both a human-readable HTML report and direct access to the underlying data-quality summaries in R. This makes the Data Status Report useful for documenting data readiness, identifying issues, and improving the dataset before generating the final Ecological Report.