| Role | GitHub repository | README | Issue | Discussion | Pull Request | Fork | GitHub Pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project manager | Set contributor permissions, share code of conduct | Project description, citation, DOIs | Assign tasks to collaborators | Discuss project directions and goals | Approve and incorporate edits to code and/or writing | Share up-to-date reports, figures, or draft manuscript | |
| Co-author | Edit Markdown text or add files | Propose changes involving code (e.g. analyses, figures) | Discuss proposed changes to manuscript | ||||
| Code contributor | Suggest code changes | Contribute changes to code, initiate code review | Contribute to project website | ||||
| Code reviewer | Find all code related to a project | Highlight specific lines of code and make suggestions | Review or recommended changes in code | ||||
| Community | Suggest additional features and report bugs | Ask questions about data and code | Create a linked, editable copy of the repository | View project website |
Table: A non-exhaustive collection of ideas for how various GitHub features could be utilized for a research project. Here we have categorized contributors/collaborators into five roles. A Project Manager owns the GitHub repository for a project, and leads the academic project (e.g., lead author of a manuscript). A co-author contributes to writing and other aspects of research, but may have limited or no experience with programming, git, and/or GitHub. A code contributor writes or edits analysis code for the project. A code reviewer could be a project collaborator or a peer reviewer who reviews project code. They are familiar with coding, but not necessarily with git or GitHub (but they are willing to learn). Finally, community members could be other researchers or non-researchers interested in reproducing results, re-using code or data, or communicating with researchers involved in the project. These roles are not mutually exclusive—a co-author could also be a code contributor and code reviewer, for example. For definitions of the GitHub features, see Box 1. {#tbl:roles}