Versioning and Update Process

As the reuse space continues to develop and evolve, updates to the Standard will be necessary to ensure it remains relevant to both current and prospective users.

Definitions

Updates are defined as either adding to, or changing, the Standard’s existing documentation, codelists, fields or structure.

Semantic versioning will be used to identify releases - using the numerical format [Major].[Minor]:

• Major: backwards-incompatible changes or additions (e.g. 2.0)
• Minor: backwards-compatible changes or additions (e.g. 1.2)

Alpha stages of the Standard will be shown as an alphanumeric suffix (e.g. v1.0-alpha1). Updates to Alpha stages may be backwards-compatible or backwards-incompatible.

Updates will be developed via a draft branch in Github, before being reviewed and released to the main branch. A summary of each release will be described in the changelog.

Historic versions of the Standard will be accessible in Github, using their respective Tags.

Process for Updating the Standard:

1. Proposing an update
   • Change requests can be submitted by anyone, using the contact form on https://reuse-standard.org or through Github
2. Prioritising the proposed updates
   • Periodically, the list of proposed updates is reviewed and prioritised by the Standard development team
   • The prioritised list is reviewed, and feedback provided, by the reuse.id Consortium
3. Finalising the list of proposed updates
   • Feedback from the Consortium is reviewed and actioned by the Standard development team
   • The list is finalised
4. Development
   • Updates are developed in a draft branch in Github
   • The draft branch is reviewed by the Standard development team
   • Relevant feedback is actioned
5. Updated version release
   • The final updated version is released to the live Github branch

If you are interested in the progress of reuse.id and would like to be part of the Consortium, please contact us.