rOpenSci fosters a culture that values open and reproducible research using shared data and software. We curate a collection of R packages that lower barriers to working with scientific data sources. During this pandemic, field work is often not an option, but with rOpenSci packages research can continue as scientists take advantage of the massive amounts of open scientific data that are freely available. Here I share some examples of how rOpenSci packages have been used to access open data for applications in ecology.