Provide contribution guidelines

Author: sven1103

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+# Contributing to Compass
+
+Thank you for your interest in contributing to **Compass**!
+Compass is an open-source research software project developed in the
+context of FAIR Signposting and scholarly communication.
+
+We welcome contributions in many forms — code, documentation, examples,
+and discussion.
+
+---
+
+## Ways to contribute
+
+You can contribute by:
+
+- reporting bugs or unexpected behavior,
+- improving documentation or examples,
+- proposing new features or validation rules,
+- submitting code improvements or fixes.
+
+Documentation and examples are first-class contributions.
+
+---
+
+## Reporting issues
+
+Please use **GitHub Issues** to report bugs or propose changes.
+
+When reporting a bug, try to include:
+- a minimal, reproducible example,
+- the Compass version,
+- relevant input data (e.g. WebLinks or Link Sets),
+- expected vs. observed behavior.
+
+---
+
+## Proposing changes
+
+For non-trivial changes (new validators, new semantics, API changes),
+we strongly recommend opening an issue first to discuss the design.
+
+Compass follows published standards (RFC 8288, RFC 9264, FAIR Signposting).
+Proposed changes must align with these specifications.
+
+---
+
+## Code contributions
+
+To contribute code:
+
+1. Fork the repository
+2. Create a feature branch
+3. Implement your changes
+4. Add or update tests
+5. Ensure all CI checks pass
+6. Open a Pull Request
+
+Please:
+- keep changes focused and well-scoped,
+- follow the existing coding style,
+- include tests for new behavior,
+- update documentation where relevant.
+
+---
+
+## Scientific software principles
+
+Compass is developed as **research software**. Contributions should aim to:
+
+- preserve reproducibility and determinism,
+- avoid breaking semantics without discussion,
+- favor clarity over cleverness,
+- document assumptions and decisions.
+
+---
+
+## Review process
+
+All contributions are reviewed by maintainers.
+Maintainers may request changes or clarification.
+
+Final decisions on acceptance rest with the project maintainers.
+
+---
+
+## Code of conduct
+
+We expect all contributors to interact respectfully and professionally.
+Harassment or exclusionary behavior will not be tolerated.
+
+---
+
+Thank you for helping improve Compass!

README.md

@@ -182,4 +182,22 @@ Together, they form a clean separation of concerns:
 - *Linksmith*: “Is this syntactically valid Web Linking?”
 - *Compass*: “Is this WebLink model sound, and what does it mean for FAIR Signposting?”
 
+---
+
+## Contributing
+
+Compass is an open-source research software project and welcomes contributions
+from the community.
+
+You can contribute by:
+- reporting bugs or unexpected behavior,
+- improving documentation or examples,
+- proposing new validation rules or features,
+- submitting code improvements or fixes.
+
+Please read the
+[Contribution Guidelines](CONTRIBUTING.md)
+before opening an issue or pull request.
 
+All contributions are reviewed, and design discussions are encouraged —
+especially for changes affecting validation semantics or public APIs.