How to Contribute

How to Contribute#

This book is an open-source living textbook, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. It improves through the contributions of students, instructors, and practitioners who use it.

Reporting Errors and Typos#

If you find a factual error, a typographical error, a broken formula, or a code block that does not run as written, the best way to report it is through the GitHub Issues tracker:

  1. Go to https://github.com/yourusername/biostats-book/issues

  2. Click New Issue

  3. In the title, state the chapter and the nature of the problem (e.g., “Ch. 5 — incorrect degrees of freedom formula in Section 6.2”)

  4. In the body, paste the current text and your suggested correction

You can also click the Open Issue button at the top right of any page in this book to go directly to the issue tracker for that page.

Suggesting Improvements#

If you have a suggestion for a clearer explanation, a better worked example, an additional review question, or a new software tip, open an issue using the same process above and label it Enhancement.

Suggestions that have been particularly valuable in previous revisions include:

  • Alternative phrasings for p-value interpretation that worked better for non-native English speakers

  • Additional PSPP screenshots for steps that students found ambiguous

  • Worked examples grounded in settings other than the Framingham Heart Study outbreak (maternal health, HIV surveillance, hospital-acquired infections)

Submitting a Pull Request#

If you are comfortable working with GitHub and Markdown, you are welcome to submit corrections or additions directly as a pull request:

  1. Fork the repository at https://github.com/yourusername/biostats-book

  2. Make your changes in the relevant .md file inside chapters/, frontmatter/, or backmatter/

  3. Submit a pull request with a short description of what you changed and why

  4. All pull requests are reviewed before merging

Please keep pull requests focused: one correction or one addition per pull request makes review faster.

Translating the Book#

If you would like to translate this book into another language, please open an issue to discuss it first. A translation should be maintained as a separate repository with a clear attribution statement linking back to this original. The CC BY 4.0 licence permits this as long as attribution is preserved.

Using This Book in Your Course#

You are welcome to use this book, or any part of it, in your own teaching without seeking permission — the CC BY 4.0 licence covers this explicitly. If you do use it, the authors would be grateful to hear about it: knowing where and how the book is being used helps prioritise improvements.

Please send a brief note to us with the subject line “Course adoption” if you adopt the book for a course.

Acknowledgment Policy#

Contributions that result in a substantive change to the text — a corrected worked example, a new review question, a new code block — will be acknowledged in the Acknowledgments page of the next edition, with the contributor’s name and the nature of the contribution, unless the contributor requests anonymity.

Thank you for helping make this resource better.

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