# Guidelines for contributing

This document describes how you can contribute to Darwin Core.

Changes to the standard are subject to section 3 Change Process of the [TDWG Vocabulary Maintenance Specification](https://github.com/tdwg/vocab/blob/master/vms/maintenance-specification.md). Here's how you can contribute:

* Want to make a change to the standard? Copy and paste one of the **issue templates** below and [submit a new issue](https://github.com/tdwg/dwc/issues/new).
* Want to contribute to this repository? [Fork the repository](https://github.com/tdwg/dwc/fork), make the changes, and [send a pull request](https://github.com/tdwg/dwc/compare).
* Have a question about Darwin Core? Send it to tdwg-content@lists.tdwg.org or to the Darwin Core Questions & Answers repository through [this form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSekd0QSdgiK5ujh6CLZPx9kKTcS-mJRNK_pGWk3b3fHv4x4gQ/viewform?c=0&w=1) or directly as a new [issue](https://github.com/tdwg/dwc-qa/issues).

## Issue templates

### New term

Copy and paste this template into your [new issue](https://github.com/tdwg/dwc/issues/new) if you want to create a term that does not exist yet ([example]()).

```
## New term

* Submitter:
* Justification (why is this term necessary?):
* Proponents (at least two independent parties who need this term):

Proposed attributes of the new term:

* Term name (in lowerCamelCase):
* Class (e.g. Location, Taxon):
* Definition of the term:
* Usage comments (recommendations regarding content, etc.):
* Examples: 
* Refines (identifier of the broader term this term refines, if applicable):
* Replaces (identifier of the existing term that would be deprecated and replaced by this term, if applicable):
* ABCD 2.06 (XPATH of the equivalent term in ABCD, if applicable):
```

### Change term

Copy and paste this template into your [new issue](https://github.com/tdwg/dwc/issues/new) if you want to make a change to a term.

```
## Change term

* Term identifier (URL of the term to change):
* Justification (why is this change necessary?):
* Submitter:

I suggest the following changes (leave blank whatever would not change):

* Term name (in lowerCamelCase):
* Class (e.g. Location, Taxon):
* Definition of the term:
* Usage comments (recommendations regarding content, etc.):
* Examples: 
* Refines (identifier of the broader term this term refines, if applicable):
* Replaces (identifier of the existing term that would be deprecated and replaced by this term, if applicable):
* ABCD 2.06 (XPATH of the equivalent term in ABCD, if applicable):
```

### Change documentation

Copy and paste this template into your [new issue](https://github.com/tdwg/dwc/issues/new) if you want to make a change to the documentation. Or, [fork the repository](https://github.com/tdwg/dwc/fork), make the changes yourself, and [send a pull request](https://github.com/tdwg/dwc/compare).

```
## Change documentation

* Documentation reference (URL):
* Submitter:
* Justification (why is this change necessary?):

I suggest the following changes:


```