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+# How to contribute to HDF5 (Draft)
+
+The HDF Group encourages community members to contribute to the HDF5 project. We accept and are very grateful for any type of contributions 
+from small typos and bug fixes to new features. The HDF Group is committed to work with the code contributors and make contribution process simple and enjoyable.
+
+This document describes guiding principles for the HDF5 code contributors and does not pretend to address any possible 
+contribution. If in doubt, please do not hesitate to ask us for guidance. 
+***Note that no contribution may be accepted unless the donor agrees with the HDF Group software license terms
+found in the COPYING file in the top source directory of every branch.***
+
+
+> We will assume that you are familiar with `git` and `GitHub`.  If not, you may go through the GitHub tutorial found at [https://guides.github.com/activities/hello-world/](https://guides.github.com/activities/hello-world/).  This tutorial should only take around 10 minutes.
+
+## Table of Contents
+
+* [Workflow](#workflow)
+* [Acceptance criteria for pull request](#criteria)
+* [Check List](#checklist)
+
+# Workflow <A NAME="workflow"></A>
+
+The process for contributing code to HDF5 is as follows:
+
+* Open an issue on [HDF5 GitHub](https://github.com/HDFGroup/hdf5/issues).
+
+> This step is ***required*** unless the change is minor (e.g., typo fix). 
+
+* Fork the [HDF5](https://github.com/HDFGroup/hdf5) repository.
+* Make the desired changes to the HDF5 software.
+	* New features should always go to develop branch first and later should be merged to the appropriate maintenance branches.
+	* Bug fixes should go to all appropriate branches (develop and maintenance). 
+* Build and test your changes. Detailed instructions on how to build and test HDF5 can be found in the `INSTALL*` files in the `release_docs` directory.
+* Push your changes to GitHub.
+* Issue a pull request and address any code formatting and testing issues reported.
+
+Once a pull request is correctly formatted and passes **ALL** CI tests, it will be reviewed and evaluated by The HDF Group developers and HDF5 community members who can approve pull requests..
+The HDF Group developers will work with you to assure that the pull request satisfies acceptance criteria described in the next section. 
+
+# Acceptance criteria for pull request <A NAME="criteria"></A>
+
+We appreciate every contribution we receive, but we may not accept them all.  Those that we *do* accept satisfy the following criteria:
+
+* **The pull request has a clear purpose** - What does the pull request address? How does it benefit the HDF5 community? 
+If the pull request does not have a clear purpose and benefits it will not be accepted. 
+
+* **The pull request is documented** - The HDF5 developers must understand not only *what* a change is doing, but *how* it is doing it.
+  Documenting the code makes it easier for us to understand your patch and will help to maintaine the code in the future. 
+
+* **The pull request passes HDF5 regression testing** - Any issue fixed or functionality added should be accompanied by the corresponding 
+tests and pass HDF5 regression testing run by The HDF Group. We do not expect you to perform comprehensive testing across multiple platforms 
+before we accept the pull request. If the pull request does not pass regression testing after the merge, The HDF Group developers will i
+work with you on the fixes. 
+
+* **The pull request does not compromise the principles behind HDF5** - HDF5 has a 100% commitment to backward compatibility.  
+	* Any file ever created with HDF5 must be readable by any future version of HDF5.
+   If the purpose of your patch  is to modify HDF5 data model or file format,
+ **please** discuss this with us first. File format changes and features required by those changes can be introduced only in a new major release. 
+	* HDF5 has a commitment to remaining *machine-independent*; data created on one platform/environment/architecture **must** remain readable by HDF5 on any other. 
+	* For binary compatibility no changes are allowed to public APIs and data structures in the maintenance releases; new APIs can be added.
+
+* **New features are documented** - Any new features should have proper documentation; talk to us if you have any questions.
+
+
+# Checklist <A NAME="checklist"></A>
+
+Please make sure that you check the items applicable to your pull request:
+
+* Code 
+  * [ ] Does the pull request have a corresponding GitHub issue and clear purpose?
+  * [ ] Does the pull request follow HDF5 best practices (naming conventions, code portability, code structure, etc.)? <<TODO: link to the document>>
+  * [ ] If changes were done to autotools build were they added to CMake and vice versa?
+  * [ ] Is the pull request applicable to any other branches? If yes, which ones? Please document it in the GitHub issue.
+  * [ ] Is the new code sufficiently documented for future maintenance?
+  * [ ] Does the new feature require a change to an existing API? See "API Compatibility Macros" document (https://portal.hdfgroup.org/display/HDF5/API+Compatibility+Macros)
+* Documentation
+  * [ ] Was the change described in the release_docs/RELEASE.txt file?
+  * [ ] Was MANIFEST updated if new files had been added to the source?
+  * [ ] Was the new function documented in the corresponding public header file using Doxygen? <<TODO: link to Doxygen instructions>>
+  * [ ] Was new functionality documented for the HDF5 community (the level of documentation depends on the feature; ask us what would be appropriate)
+* Testing
+  * [ ] Does the pull request have tests?
+  * [ ] Does the pull request affect HDF5 library perfromance?
+
+We want as many contributions as we can get, and we are here to help. Feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions
+
+Thank you for your contribution!
+