Macrostrat is improved by the geologists and developers who use it. Contributions of every size are welcome, from reporting a misplaced contact to adding a regional compilation or a new software feature.
Accounts
Before version 2, Macrostrat had no user accounts and all data were entered by the core team. Anyone with an ORCID iD can sign in to the website. Signing in opens the first contributor tools, such as a dry run of column ingestion that checks a column dataset against Macrostrat's format without saving it. The tools that write data, map harmonization first and column editing next, are in development: they are being tested with collaborators, and a public beta will follow.
Data
- Geologic maps. If you have published or unpublished geologic mapping you would like to see in Macrostrat, get in touch. Maps arrive in many formats; the fields Macrostrat needs for each map unit are described in Contributing maps to Macrostrat, and how a map moves into the system is described in Map ingestion.
- Stratigraphic columns. New columns are prepared in Macrostrat's column ingestion format (Format documentation), a set of spreadsheet templates. A web-based column editor is in development; in the meantime, contact us to contribute columns or a dataset of them.
- Corrections. If something on the map or in a column is wrong, tell us, ideally with the location, what is wrong, and a reference. Corrections are among the most valuable contributions, because every application built on Macrostrat benefits.
- Field observations. Checkins recorded in the Rockd app add observations, photos and local knowledge to the geologic record.
Software
Macrostrat's software is open source and developed on GitHub, mainly in the UW-Macrostrat organization. Issues, bug reports and pull requests are welcome. Codebase describes the repositories and what each holds; Contributor guide covers code style for the website; and System architecture explains how the pieces fit together.
Many of Macrostrat's components are reusable in other projects, notably its web components for maps, columns and data tables, and its Python libraries.
Documentation
These pages are open to contribution too. They live in the Macrostrat/docs repository as a vault of Markdown files that can be edited in Obsidian or any text editor; no build tools are needed. Open a pull request with your changes. Documentation that is tied to a particular piece of code, such as a format specification or developer guide, lives in that code's repository and is pulled into these pages automatically.
Get in touch
See the community page for ways to reach the Macrostrat team.
