diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 0c1a567..0bd62a3 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -2,12 +2,9 @@ Type: Package
 Package: plume
 Title: A Simple Author Handler for Scientific Writing
 Version: 0.1.0.9000
-Authors@R: c(
+Authors@R: 
     person("Arnaud", "Gallou", , "arangacas@gmail.com", role = c("aut", "cre", "cph"),
-           comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0002-1002-4247")),
-    person("Hadley", "Wickham", role = "cph",
-           comment = "Author of included stringb functions.")
-  )
+           comment = c(ORCID = "0000-0002-1002-4247"))
 Description: Handles and formats author information in scientific writing
     in 'R Markdown' and 'Quarto'. 'plume' provides easy-to-use and
     flexible tools for injecting author metadata in 'YAML' headers as well
diff --git a/LICENSE.note b/LICENSE.note
deleted file mode 100644
index 5dfb1b9..0000000
--- a/LICENSE.note
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,27 +0,0 @@
-The plume package as a whole is distributed under the GPL license.
-It includes functions from the stringb package (https://github.com/hadley/stringb), distributed under the MIT license.
-
-stringb
--------
-
-# MIT License
-
-Copyright (c) 2020 RStudio
-
-Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
-of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
-in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
-to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
-copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
-furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
-
-The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
-copies or substantial portions of the Software.
-
-THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
-IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
-FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
-AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
-LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
-OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
-SOFTWARE.
diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index 8071179..dfcee32 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -55,6 +55,14 @@ importFrom(rlang,is_true)
 importFrom(rlang,set_names)
 importFrom(rlang,sym)
 importFrom(rlang,syms)
+importFrom(stringr,fixed)
+importFrom(stringr,regex)
+importFrom(stringr,str_extract)
+importFrom(stringr,str_extract_all)
+importFrom(stringr,str_remove_all)
+importFrom(stringr,str_replace)
+importFrom(stringr,str_replace_all)
+importFrom(stringr,str_split_1)
 importFrom(tibble,as_tibble)
 importFrom(tibble,as_tibble_row)
 importFrom(tibble,rowid_to_column)
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index a78aa11..5740556 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 # plume (development version)
 
+* Removed stringb dependency in favour of stringr (#42).
+
 * The `by` parameter in `$set_*()` methods is now deprecated in favour of `.by` (#41).
 
 * `Plume` gains a new method `$set_main_contributors()` that allows you to force one or more contributors to appear first in the contribution list for any given role. `Plume`'s contructor also regains the parameter `by` to set the default `by`/`.by` value used in all `set_*()` methods.
diff --git a/R/als.R b/R/als.R
index 4fd9055..1b044f9 100644
--- a/R/als.R
+++ b/R/als.R
@@ -10,13 +10,13 @@ als_key_set <- function(format) {
 }
 
 als_extract_keys <- function(x) {
-  x <- string_split(x)
+  x <- str_split_1(x, "")
   x[x %in% letters]
 }
 
 als_extract_mark <- function(format, key) {
   mark_regex <- paste0("[,^]{1,2}(?=", key, ")")
-  mark <- string_extract(format, mark_regex)
+  mark <- str_extract(format, mark_regex)
   if (is.na(mark)) {
     return("")
   }
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ als_extract_mark <- function(format, key) {
 }
 
 als_sanitise <- function(x) {
-  string_remove_all(x, "([,^])\\K\\1+")
+  str_remove_all(x, "(?<=([,^]))\\1+")
 }
 
 als_parse <- function(format) {
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ als_parse <- function(format) {
 
 als_join <- function(elts, marks) {
   out <- map2_vec(elts, marks, \(elt, mark) {
-    if (is_blank(elt) & string_contain(mark, "^")) {
+    if (is_blank(elt) & str_contain(mark, "^")) {
       return("^")
     } else if (is_blank(elt)) {
       return(elt)
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ als_join <- function(elts, marks) {
 
 als_clean <- function(x) {
   for (pattern in c("(?<=^|\\^),|,$", "\\^{2}")) {
-    x <- string_remove_all(x, pattern)
+    x <- str_remove_all(x, pattern)
   }
   x
 }
diff --git a/R/checkers.R b/R/checkers.R
index 68dfe5f..11588c3 100644
--- a/R/checkers.R
+++ b/R/checkers.R
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 has_uppercase <- function(x) {
-  string_detect(x, "\\p{Lu}")
+  str_detect(x, "\\p{Lu}")
 }
 
 detect_name <- function(x, name) {
-  string_detect(names(x), name)
+  str_detect(names(x), name)
 }
 
 has_name <- function(x, name) {
@@ -14,12 +14,12 @@ has_name.default <- function(x, name) {
   name %in% names(x)
 }
 
-has_name.regex <- function(x, name) {
+has_name.stringr_regex <- function(x, name) {
   any(detect_name(x, name))
 }
 
 has_metachr <- function(x) {
-  string_detect(x, r"{[\\\[\](){}|?$^*+]}")
+  str_detect(x, r"{[\\\[\](){}|?$^*+]}")
 }
 
 has_homonyms <- function(x) {
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ has_homonyms <- function(x) {
 }
 
 has_overflowing_ws <- function(x) {
-  string_detect(x, "^\\s|\\s$")
+  str_detect(x, "^\\s|\\s$")
 }
 
 is_empty <- function(x) {
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ is_nested <- function(x, item) {
 }
 
 is_blank <- function(x) {
-  string_detect(x, "^\\s*$")
+  str_detect(x, "^\\s*$")
 }
 
 is_not_na <- Negate(is.na)
@@ -258,7 +258,7 @@ check_suffix_format <- function(x, allowed, arg = caller_arg(x)) {
 }
 
 path_is_relative <- function(x) {
-  !string_detect(x, "^(/|[A-Za-z]:|\\\\|~)")
+  !str_detect(x, "^(/|[A-Za-z]:|\\\\|~)")
 }
 
 check_path <- function(x, ..., arg = caller_arg(x)) {
@@ -274,7 +274,7 @@ check_path <- function(x, ..., arg = caller_arg(x)) {
 }
 
 file_ext <- function(x) {
-  string_extract(x, "(?<=\\.)[^.]+$")
+  str_extract(x, "(?<=\\.)[^.]+$")
 }
 
 check_file <- function(x, extension, ..., arg = caller_arg(x)) {
@@ -289,7 +289,7 @@ check_file <- function(x, extension, ..., arg = caller_arg(x)) {
 }
 
 is_glueish <- function(x) {
-  is_string(x) && string_detect(x, "{[^}]+}")
+  is_string(x) && str_detect(x, "\\{[^}]+\\}")
 }
 
 check_glue <- function(x, allowed, ..., arg = caller_arg(x)) {
@@ -310,7 +310,7 @@ check_glue <- function(x, allowed, ..., arg = caller_arg(x)) {
 }
 
 is_orcid <- function(x) {
-  string_detect(x, "^(?:\\d{4}-){3}\\d{3}(?:\\d|X)$")
+  str_detect(x, "^(?:\\d{4}-){3}\\d{3}(?:\\d|X)$")
 }
 
 check_orcid <- function(x, ..., arg = caller_arg(x)) {
diff --git a/R/credit_roles.R b/R/credit_roles.R
index 25a4b5a..83ef383 100644
--- a/R/credit_roles.R
+++ b/R/credit_roles.R
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ credit_roles <- function(oxford_spelling = TRUE) {
 }
 
 full_rename <- function(x, pattern, replacement) {
-  names(x) <- string_replace(names(x), pattern, replacement)
-  string_replace(x, pattern, replacement)
+  names(x) <- str_replace(names(x), pattern, replacement)
+  x[] <- str_replace(x, pattern, replacement)
+  x
 }
diff --git a/R/plume-handler.R b/R/plume-handler.R
index 95024a7..d863539 100644
--- a/R/plume-handler.R
+++ b/R/plume-handler.R
@@ -250,7 +250,7 @@ PlumeHandler$set("private", "check_role_system", function() {
     return()
   }
   roles <- select(private$plume, starts_with(var))
-  have_explicit_roles <- map_vec(roles, \(role) any(string_detect(role, "\\D")))
+  have_explicit_roles <- map_vec(roles, \(role) any(str_detect(role, "\\D")))
   if (!all(have_explicit_roles)) {
     return()
   }
diff --git a/R/plume-package.R b/R/plume-package.R
index 7183436..6b6c07e 100644
--- a/R/plume-package.R
+++ b/R/plume-package.R
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@
 #' @importFrom rlang caller_env caller_arg
 #' @importFrom glue glue glue_collapse
 #' @importFrom vctrs vec_group_id vec_duplicate_any vec_restore vec_rank
+#' @importFrom stringr str_split_1 str_remove_all str_replace str_replace_all
+#' @importFrom stringr str_extract str_extract_all fixed regex
 #' @importFrom jsonlite toJSON parse_json
 #' @importFrom yaml yaml.load as.yaml
 #' @importFrom R6 R6Class
diff --git a/R/plume-quarto.R b/R/plume-quarto.R
index f39b896..7574f38 100644
--- a/R/plume-quarto.R
+++ b/R/plume-quarto.R
@@ -234,8 +234,8 @@ parse_affiliation <- function(x) {
   }
   keys <- collapse(affiliation_keys, sep = "|")
   keys_regex <- paste0("\\b(?i:", keys, ")")
-  nms <- string_extract_all(x, sprintf("%s(?==)", keys_regex))
-  els <- string_split(x, sprintf("\\s*%s=\\s*", keys_regex))[-1]
+  nms <- str_extract_all(x, sprintf("%s(?==)", keys_regex), simplify = TRUE)
+  els <- str_split_1(x, sprintf("\\s*%s=\\s*", keys_regex))[-1]
   set_names(els, tolower(nms))
 }
 
@@ -244,5 +244,5 @@ make_affiliation_id <- function(x) {
 }
 
 has_affiliation_sep <- function(x) {
-  string_contain(x, "=")
+  str_contain(x, "=")
 }
diff --git a/R/strings.R b/R/strings.R
deleted file mode 100644
index f530c75..0000000
--- a/R/strings.R
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,121 +0,0 @@
-# stringb functions start
-# modified from https://github.com/hadley/stringb
-
-fixed <- function(x) {
-  structure(x, class = c("fixed", "character"))
-}
-
-regex <- function(x) {
-  structure(x, class = c("regex", "character"))
-}
-
-is_fixed <- function(x) {
-  inherits(x, "fixed")
-}
-
-is_perl <- function(x) {
-  is.null(attr(x, "class"))
-}
-
-string_detect <- function(string, pattern) {
-  grepl(
-    pattern, string,
-    fixed = is_fixed(pattern),
-    perl = is_perl(pattern)
-  )
-}
-
-string_extract <- function(string, pattern) {
-  string_sub(string, string_locate(string, pattern))
-}
-
-string_extract_all <- function(string, pattern) {
-  loc <- string_locate_all(string, pattern)
-  out <- lapply(seq_along(string), \(i) {
-    loc <- loc[[i]]
-    string_sub(rep(string[[i]], nrow(loc)), loc)
-  })
-  if (length(out) == 1L) {
-    out <- unlist(out)
-  }
-  out
-}
-
-string_locate <- function(string, pattern) {
-  out <- regexpr(
-    pattern, string,
-    fixed = is_fixed(pattern),
-    perl = is_perl(pattern)
-  )
-  location(out)
-}
-
-string_locate_all <- function(string, pattern) {
-  out <- gregexpr(
-    pattern, string,
-    fixed = is_fixed(pattern),
-    perl = is_perl(pattern)
-  )
-  lapply(out, location, all = TRUE)
-}
-
-location <- function(x, all = FALSE) {
-  start <- as.vector(x)
-  if (all && identical(start, -1L)) {
-    return(cbind(start = integer(), end = integer()))
-  }
-  end <- as.vector(x) + attr(x, "match.length") - 1
-  no_match <- start == -1L
-  start[no_match] <- NA
-  end[no_match] <- NA
-  cbind(start = start, end = end)
-}
-
-string_replace <- function(string, pattern, replacement) {
-  sub(
-    pattern, replacement, string,
-    fixed = is_fixed(pattern),
-    perl = is_perl(pattern)
-  )
-}
-
-string_replace_all <- function(string, pattern, replacement) {
-  gsub(
-    pattern, replacement, string,
-    fixed = is_fixed(pattern),
-    perl = is_perl(pattern)
-  )
-}
-
-string_sub <- function(string, start = 1L, end = -1L) {
-  if (is.matrix(start)) {
-    end <- start[, 2]
-    start <- start[, 1]
-  }
-  n <- nchar(string)
-  start <- ifelse(start < 0, start + n + 1, start)
-  end <- ifelse(end < 0, end + n + 1, end)
-  substr(string, start, end)
-}
-
-# stringb functions end
-
-string_remove_all <- function(string, pattern) {
-  string_replace_all(string, pattern, "")
-}
-
-string_contain <- function(string, pattern) {
-  string_detect(string, fixed(pattern))
-}
-
-string_split <- function(string, pattern = "") {
-  out <- strsplit(
-    string, pattern,
-    fixed = is_fixed(pattern),
-    perl = is_perl(pattern)
-  )
-  if (length(out) == 1L) {
-    out <- unlist(out)
-  }
-  out
-}
diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index 8e869b6..b1e7e6c 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -23,11 +23,11 @@ not_na_any <- function(cols) {
 }
 
 dot <- function(x) {
-  string_replace_all(x, "(?<=[\\pL\\pN](?!\\p{Po}))", ".")
+  str_replace_all(x, "(?<=[\\p{L}\\p{N}](?!\\p{Po}))", ".")
 }
 
 make_initials <- function(x, dot = FALSE) {
-  out <- string_remove_all(x, "(*UCP)\\B\\w+|[\\s.]+")
+  out <- str_remove_all(x, "\\B\\w+|[\\s.]+")
   if (dot) {
     out <- dot(out)
   }
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ get_params_set_to_true <- function() {
 }
 
 extract_glue_vars <- function(x) {
-  string_extract_all(x, "(?<=\\{\\b)[^}]+")
+  str_extract_all(x, "(?<=\\{\\b)[^}]+", simplify = TRUE)
 }
 
 group_id <- function(x) {
@@ -127,10 +127,19 @@ propagate_na <- function(x, from) {
 to_chr_class <- function(x, negate = FALSE) {
   neg <- if (negate) "^" else ""
   x <- collapse(x)
-  x <- string_replace(x, r"{([-\\\[\]])}", r"{\\\1}")
+  x <- str_replace(x, r"{([-\\\[\]])}", r"{\\\1}")
   paste0("[", neg, x, "]")
 }
 
+str_contain <- function(string, pattern) {
+  str_detect(string, fixed(pattern))
+}
+
+str_detect <- function(string, pattern) {
+  out <- stringr::str_detect(string, pattern)
+  replace(out, is.na(string), FALSE)
+}
+
 wrap <- function(x, value) {
   paste0(value, x, value)
 }
diff --git a/R/yaml.R b/R/yaml.R
index 3d1e9e8..c49b336 100644
--- a/R/yaml.R
+++ b/R/yaml.R
@@ -20,8 +20,7 @@ as_json <- function(x) {
 }
 
 separate_yaml_header <- function(x) {
-  # use of stringr to preserve a match at the end of the string
-  stringr::str_split_1(x, "(?m:^|\\R\\K)-{3}(?:\\R|$)")
+  str_split_1(x, "(?m:^|\\R\\K)-{3}(?:\\R|$)")
 }
 
 as_verbatim_lgl <- function(x) {
@@ -46,7 +45,7 @@ yaml_inject <- function(lines, replacement) {
 }
 
 has_yaml <- function(x) {
-  string_detect(x, "(?s)^\\R*---\\R.*\\B---(?:\\R|$)")
+  str_detect(x, "(?s)^\\R*---\\R.*\\B---(?:\\R|$)")
 }
 
 check_has_yaml <- function(x) {
diff --git a/man/plume-package.Rd b/man/plume-package.Rd
index ec5622b..bff7f45 100644
--- a/man/plume-package.Rd
+++ b/man/plume-package.Rd
@@ -23,10 +23,5 @@ Useful links:
 \author{
 \strong{Maintainer}: Arnaud Gallou \email{arangacas@gmail.com} (\href{https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1002-4247}{ORCID}) [copyright holder]
 
-Other contributors:
-\itemize{
-  \item Hadley Wickham (Author of included stringb functions.) [copyright holder]
-}
-
 }
 \keyword{internal}
diff --git a/tests/testthat/helper-plume.R b/tests/testthat/helper-plume.R
index 0beca71..309d0ea 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/helper-plume.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/helper-plume.R
@@ -29,9 +29,9 @@ tempfile_ <- function() {
 dedent <- function(string) {
   out <- trimws(string)
   ws_regex <- "(?<=\n) "
-  ws <- string_extract_all(out, paste0(ws_regex, "+"))
+  ws <- str_extract_all(out, paste0(ws_regex, "+"), simplify = TRUE)
   ws_n <- min(nchar(ws))
-  string_remove_all(out, paste0(ws_regex, "{", ws_n, "}"))
+  str_remove_all(out, paste0(ws_regex, "{", ws_n, "}"))
 }
 
 read_test_file <- function(file) {