[R-pkg-devel] Best way to restore an archived CRAN package

[Stefan Angrick]

Hi,

I'm looking for advice on how to resurrect an archived R package.

I have a couple of scripts that rely on the CC0-licensed BIS package (https://cran.r-project.org/package=BIS) which downloads and parses data from the Bank for International Settlements. The package was archived in 2021, presumably because the format of the source data changed which I imagine caused examples to fail. Writing code to digest the new data format is straightforward, so I'd like to bring the package back. Unfortunately I'm unable to reach the original author, so I'm unsure how to proceed.

Does CRAN allow for people other than the original author to bring back a package? Or would it be preferable to create a new package with a new name? In either case, how would the original package author be acknowledged?

Thanks,
Stefan