ISB International Society of Biomechanics
  
How to Contribute Software and Data to ISBweb

  

Why Contribute to ISBweb ?
 
  • Share the results of your work with the rest of the world. If you ever found anything here that was useful, you know how much progress can be made by sharing. This is in the spirit of the scientific method:

    • "If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants." -- Isaac Newton
       

  • Publicize your work through the Internet. Every new contribution will be announced on Biomch-L and featured on the ISBweb home page.  The ISB website attracts thousands of visitors, and the material is often discussed on Biomch-L, a mailing list with almost 4000 subscribers. Traditional journal articles do not always get this kind of attention.    
  • There's no better way of getting your code in shape than preparing it for other people to use!
     
Copy or Link ?
   
You may store your contribution on your own web server, if you have one, and we can install a link. The advantage of this is that you can keep making updates, and user will always get the most recent version. Some contributors prefer this, but I recommend that you send me a copy of the files to store on the ISB site. Especially if the data or software is a finished project and no more changes are expected. Once you store something on the ISB website, it is stored for ever, at no cost to you. We will make sure backups are made and that the material remains accessible for as long as the ISB exists.
 
How to Send the Material ?
    
If you just want to have a link on the ISB web site, E-mail the URL of the link and a one-line description of the material to the ISB's WebMaster. If you wish to physically store the material on our site, which we prefer, we will need the following:
  • Copies of the files. The preferred method is provide us with and FTP link to your files. Smaller files ( less than 1 MB) can be attached to an email.
  • Documentation. The preferred method is to create a web page with the name "index.html" that  can be used as a main page for accessing your material. This web page can contain links to the actual data and/or software files. Alternatively, send a description of the contribution and of each file submitted and we will create the web page for you.
   
File Formats
  
Contributions should preferably be in standard HTML or plain ASCII. If binary files or other non-standard file formats are used, please include instructions on how to decode the files. You may use a link to the ISB file formats page, if this provides sufficient information.
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Commercial and Legal Issues
  
In principle, all material posted on ISBweb can can be used without restriction for non-commercial purposes. The author of software or owner of data should always be contacted if commercial use is intended.

To make sure that this happens, you can include such a statement in your documentation. Many other types of protection are possible. For some suggestions, see the information about GNU copyleft. It is your own responsibility to include copyright protection, if you need any.

The ISB site will not post commercial materials or material that requires the user to pay for use. We will post materials contributed by companies, including functional demonstration software, providing the material is useful and free.
  
Questions
 

If you wish to discuss a potential contribution, or need help uploading the data, please contact 

 webmaster