Why contribute to this site?
Here are a few reasons why you should consider contributing software or data to the ISB website.
- Share the results of your work with the rest of the world. If you ever found anything here that was useful, you know how much progress can be made by sharing. This is in the spirit of the scientific method:
If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants. -- Isaac Newton
- Publicize your work through the Internet. The ISB website attracts many visitors, and the material is often discussed on Biomch-L, a forum with over 4000 subscribers. Traditional journal articles do not always get this kind of attention. Every new contribution will be announced on Biomch-L forum and also on the "What's new" section of the web site.
Software and data are currently the only contributions that we consider. We have no immediate plans to start an electronic journal or preprint repository. But this might change. If you wish to start scientific discussions or disseminate an important finding through the Internet (a good, but rarely used method to establish priority), consider a posting to Biomch-L, the web forum for the international community of Biomechanists.
To copy or to link?
You may store your contribution on your own web server, if you have one, and we can install a link. The advantage of this is that you can keep making updates, and user will always get the most recent version. Some contributors prefer this, but I recommend that you send me a copy of the files to store on the ISB site. Especially if the data or software is a finished project and no more changes are expected. Once you store something on the ISB website, it is stored for ever, at no cost to you. We will make sure backups are made and that the material remains accessible for as long as the ISB exists.
As an example, the ANZ software was originally stored on the OSU ftp server which was shut down and the files were lost. The author only had copies on obsolete magnetic media and could not recover the files. Fortunately, the author found that one of the users still had a complete copy and now it is safely stored on the ISB site.
How to send the material?
If you would like to contribute to the ISB web site, send an email with the software files and/or the URL of the link and a one-line description of the material to ISB Webmaster (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Please do not send large attached files (more than 3 MB) by email as it may get bounced by our mail server.
File formats
Contributions should preferably be in standard HTML, pdf or plain ASCII. If binary files or other non-standard file formats are used, please include instructions on how to decode the files. You may use a link to the ISB file formats page, if this provides sufficient information.
Commercial/legal issues
In principle, all material stored on the site can be used without restriction for non-commercial purposes. The author of software or owner of data should always be contacted if commercial use is intended.
To make sure that this happens, you can include such a statement in your documentation. It is your own responsibility to include copyright protection, if you need any.
The ISB site will not store material that requires the user to pay for use. We do consider storing material contributed by companies, and we will acknowledge the company for its contribution, as long as the material is useful and free.
Questions?
If you wish to discuss a potential contribution, or need help uploading the data, please contact ISB Webmaster (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
Last updated: Jan 6, 2012
