Open-source software ecosystems are highly dynamic and innovative, owing to their collaborative and flexible nature. At the same time, this poses a challenge: the individuals or organizations creating, contributing to, and maintaining open-source codebases are often in flux and highly distributed.  This working group addresses this challenge for ‘MATLAB community toolboxes’ in neuroscience. MATLAB community toolboxes are open-source code distributions of structured functionality built with MATLAB. This working group focuses on new or orphaned codebases, selected based on their potential for broad usage. The central contribution of this working group is the creation and maintenance of a dedicated GitHub organization to host these community resources. 

This working group is open to past and active interim maintainers of these selected MATLAB community toolboxes and to those contributing to best practices on their development. The group aims to develop and maintain consensual guidelines and templates for GitHub repository stewardship. It will also elaborate on and disseminate best practices, including MathWorks’ recommendations for community toolboxes, as relevant in the neuroscience context. Finally, the group aspires that many of the selected MATLAB community toolboxes will transition to more permanent individual- or organization-led development over time. 

This working group is sponsored by the MATLAB Community Toolbox (MCT) program at MathWorks.

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