  Born in the late 20s, R is one of the most popular software for statistical
computing and graphics. With the development of information technology and the
advent of the big data era, great changes have taken place in the R ecosystem.
Based on the meta information of the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) and
the bibliometric data of literature citing R, we discovered that while R is
initiated by statistics, its development is benefited greatly from computer
science and the main user group in academics come from various disciplines such
as agricultural science, biological science, environmental science and medical
science. In addition, we displayed the collaboration patterns among R
developers and analyze the possible effects of collaboration in the R
community.
