Administrative Steps

This page describes the next steps of the code release process. In general, these steps satisfy various administrative requirements, prior to the final release.

Administrative Review

Once you have added the code.json file to your repository, you should conduct the administrative review.

IPDS Record

After the administrative review, you will need to complete an IPDS record for the planned release. Note that if you have been following this guide, then you have already completed peer-review via the security, code, and domain reviews. As such, the IPDS record does not require an additional peer-review, and the IPDS peer-reviewer need only verify that the project has completed the aforementioned security, code, and domain reviews. Please see the Peer-Review section below for additional details.

You will need to include the following 4 documents in your IPDS record in order to receive bureau approval:

  • Original Manuscript

  • Final manuscript for bureau approval

  • Peer Review

  • Peer Review Reconciliation

Original Manuscript

The original manuscript can be the README, a user guide, or any other document that is meant for public consumption before a user starts using the software.

Final Manuscript

Since you have already completed peer-review, the final manuscript can be a copy of the original manuscript. While redundant, this demonstrates that the IPDS record is complete.

Peer Review

The peer-review document should give a short summary of the review process and provide links to the reviews on Gitlab. It may be useful to collect the reviews into a single Gitlab milestone, but this is not strictly required. You can use the following template to design your peer-review file: /downloads/peer-review-template.docx.

Peer-review Reconciliation

This can be a copy of the peer-review file. While redundant, this demonstrates that the IPDS record is complete.

Reserve DOI

Once the IPDS record has received bureau approval, you should reserve a DOI (digital object identifier) for the upcoming release. To do this, login to the USGS doi website and select the Create DOI button to begin the request. Fill out the appropriate fields for the record. Some important fields include:

IPDS record

The number of the approved IPDS record.

Resource Type

Set this to Software.

Location URL

This should be the eventual URL for the tagged release. This will be something like: https://code.usgs.gov/ghsc/lhp/my-cool-project/release/-/X.Y.Z, replacing my-cool-project with the project slug and X.Y.Z with the release tag. This link will not be active until you complete the release, but this is fine for now.

Once you have completed the record, select Reserve my DOI. This will hold the DOI until the release is complete, but the DOI is not yet active. (Activating the DOI will be one of the final steps of the release).