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UC OSPO Network
University of California Open Source Program Office

How to Contribute to Open Source

This resource gives a broad overview of terms and processes important to understand as a new contributor. It also includes suggestions on how to find a project to contribute to.

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Lesson metadata

Slughow-to-contribute-to-open-source
PathwayContributing to a Project
Subtopic—
Skill LevelBeginner
OSS Role(s)—
Resource TypeStatic Documents
Time RequiredPT24M
Authorbeing users of software they contribute to
License—
KeywordsContributing
Language(s)en

Additional metadata

Date Modified2025-12-26
Date Published2025-12-26
Depends Onintroduction-to-git
Learning ObjectivesAfter this lesson, the learner should be able to: - Identify the key terms and processes important for new open source contributors - Explain the typical workflow for contributing to open source projects - Demonstrate how to find projects that align with personal interests and skills - Apply best practices for making first contributions to open source - Recognize the importance of community guidelines and codes of conduct
NotesMaybe not relevant for researchers, but useful for students as a self-guided entry point
Ospo RelevanceModerate
Sorting Id14
TopicContributing

Collaboration in Open Research Projects

Intermediate

Collaborative Git for Teams

Intermediate

Introduction to Git

Beginner

Issue Tracking with GitHub

Intermediate

Making Good Pull Requests

Intermediate

Social Coding and Open Source Collaboration

Intermediate