The Public Library of Science‘s Ten Simple Rules series can be fun reading; they’re introductory papers intended to provide novices or non-domain-experts with a set of quick, evidence-based guidelines for dealing with common problems in and around various fields, and it’s become a pretty popular, accessible format as far as scientific publication goes.

Topic-wise, they’re all over the place: protecting research integrity, creating a data-management plan and taking advantage of Github are right there next to developing good reading habits, organizing an unconference or drawing a scientific comic, and lots of them are kind of great.

I recently had the good fortune to be co-author on one of them that’s right in my wheelhouse and has recently been accepted for publication: Ten Simple Rules for Helping Newcomers Become Contributors to Open Projects. They are, as promised, simple:

1. Be welcoming.
2. Help potential contributors evaluate if the project is a good fit.
3. Make governance explicit.
4. Keep knowledge up to date and findable.
5. Have and enforce a code of conduct.
6. Develop forms of legitimate peripheral participation.
7. Make it easy for newcomers to get started.
8. Use opportunities for in-person interaction – with care.
9. Acknowledge all contributions, and
10. Follow up on both success and failure.

You should read the whole thing, of course; what we’re proposing are evidence-based practices, and the details matter, but the citations are all there. It’s been a privilege to have been a small part of it, and to have done the work that’s put me in the position to contribute.

http://exple.tive.org/blarg/2019/08/07/ten-more-simple-rules/