Open Science Labs Projects #
Open Science Labs (OSL) supports open-source projects through two complementary paths:
- Project Affiliation: a relationship for independent projects that align with OSL's mission and want visibility, community connection, and access to OSL programs.
- Project Incubation: a structured growth pathway for early-stage or transitioning projects that need active support, mentorship, contributors, and a sustainability plan.
In short:
Affiliation is a relationship. Incubation is a growth pathway.
Both paths help projects grow in public, welcome contributors, and create practical impact for open science, research, education, and public-interest technology.
Affiliation vs Incubation #
| Program | Purpose | Best for | OSL role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Affiliation | Connect aligned external projects with the OSL ecosystem. | Existing projects with maintainers, direction, and public activity. | Community ally, amplifier, connector, and program gateway. |
| Incubation | Help projects move from idea or early stage toward sustainable open-source practice. | Projects that need structure, mentorship, contributor onboarding, governance, and growth support. | Active mentor, guide, and development partner. |
Affiliated projects normally remain governed and maintained by their own communities. Incubated projects receive more active OSL support and are expected to follow milestones, communicate regularly, and progress toward a stable or graduated state.
Shared Requirements #
All affiliated and incubated projects must meet the following baseline requirements:
- OSI-approved license: the project must include a clear
LICENSEfile using an Open Source Initiative approved license. - Code of Conduct: the project must include a
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.mdor an equivalent public Code of Conduct with a reporting path. - Active maintenance: the project must identify at least one reachable maintainer and show ongoing maintenance or a clearly documented stable status.
- Public development: the repository, issue tracker, contribution process, or contact path must be publicly visible.
- Community alignment: the project must align with OSL values around open science, open source, education, research, public-interest technology, inclusion, and respectful collaboration.
These requirements are not only entry criteria. They are ongoing expectations. Projects that become closed-source, lose maintainers, remove their Code of Conduct, become unsafe for contributors, or stop being maintained may be marked at risk or removed from OSL public listings.
Maintenance Levels #
OSL treats maintenance as a spectrum. A project does not need constant feature development to remain in good standing, but it does need responsible stewardship.
| Level | Meaning | Typical fit |
|---|---|---|
| Active | The project shows regular commits, reviews, releases, issue responses, roadmap progress, or contributor support. | PoC, incubating, and fast-moving affiliated projects. |
| Maintained / Stable | The project has lower activity because it is mature or stable, but maintainers remain reachable and respond to important issues. | Affiliated and graduated projects. |
| At Risk | Required files are missing, maintainers are not responding, public activity has stalled, or health checks fail repeatedly. | Temporary warning state before removal, pause, or archival. |
| Inactive | The project appears abandoned, archived, unreachable, or no longer aligned with OSL requirements. | Removed from public OSL lists; archived when hosted under an OSL-controlled organization and approved by maintainers or OSL governance. |
The goal of these levels is not to punish maintainers. The goal is to keep OSL lists trustworthy, direct contributors toward projects that can support them, and make it clear when a project needs help.
Automated Project-Health Checks #
OSL may use automated bots to help maintain public project lists and identify projects that need attention. Bots should support human review; they should not replace maintainer judgment.
Bots may check:
- whether the repository is public and reachable;
- whether the repository has an OSI-approved
LICENSE; - whether the repository has a
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md; - whether the project is archived;
- whether listed project URLs still resolve;
- whether maintainers are listed and reachable;
- recent commits, releases, merged pull requests, and issue activity;
- long-running unanswered issues or pull requests;
- missing contribution or security information, when applicable;
- whether the project remains aligned with the status shown on the OSL website.
Suggested review frequency:
| Project status | Suggested bot check frequency |
|---|---|
| PoC | Monthly |
| Incubating | Monthly |
| Affiliated | Quarterly |
| Graduated | Quarterly |
| At Risk | Every 2 weeks until resolved |
Suggested review workflow:
| Time | Action |
|---|---|
| Day 0 | Bot detects missing requirements, inactivity, broken links, archived repository, or another health concern. |
| Day 1 | Bot opens a maintenance review issue or website pull request and pings the listed maintainers. |
| Day 30 | If there is no response or fix, the project may be marked At Risk. |
| Day 60 | If still unresolved, the bot may open or update a pull request removing the project from the public OSL list or pausing incubation. |
| Day 90 | For inactive repositories hosted under an OSL-controlled organization, OSL may consider archival after human review. |
Maintainers can resolve a warning by responding, restoring required files, documenting a stable-maintenance status, transferring maintainership, updating project metadata, or publishing a realistic maintenance plan.
Which Path Should I Choose? #
Choose Project Affiliation if:
- your project already exists and has maintainers;
- you want visibility through OSL and access to programs such as internships or Google Summer of Code when available;
- you want to remain independent while collaborating with the OSL community.
Choose Project Incubation if:
- your project is early-stage, restarting, or transitioning into open source;
- you need help with structure, milestones, documentation, onboarding, governance, or releases;
- you are ready to work actively with OSL mentors and contributors.
Internship and Contributor Programs #
OSL internships and contributor programs may include both affiliated and incubated projects. Participation is not automatic: projects must provide maintainers, project ideas, public issues, a contribution path, and enough mentor availability to support contributors responsibly.