rsGSVA is an experimental package for performing Gene set variation analysis with added functionality for providing a reference dataset. The utility of including a reference dataset is that the enrichment scores that are generated are no longer reliant on the input distribution and therefore become stable and reproducible as samples are added or removed.
The package was developed by modifying the GSVA algorithm/package described here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1471-2105-14-7