Although there are no restrictions on the formatting and content of ReadMe files, GitHub also suggests ReadMe files follow a specific format in order to help users quickly locate important information . In fact, ReadMe files, one of the first things that a potential contributor reviews when accessing a GitHub repository ,, contribute to the initial impression a developer has of the software project and may influence a decision to participate in its development activities.īecause of the importance of ReadMe files, GitHub provides guidelines for developers and recommends that there be at least one ReadMe file in each repository. One of the ways that projects encourage participation is through documentation and ReadMe files . As such, successful open source projects must find ways to encourage developers, especially those new to the project, to contribute to the development activities of the project . In fact, having new people continually join open-source projects and participate in the development process is critical for project success . One of the advantages of open-source software development is that collaboration is common and contributions to software projects from members of the community are encouraged .
At the time of this research, GitHub hosted more than 100 million repositories (28 million of which are public repositories) and served over 37 million users. GitHub 2 is a popular open-source version control platform based on Git 3 that serves both as a repository and a community, hosting activities, such as pull requests and issue tracking, work processes, and work outputs .
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