Introduction
Welcome to the world of GitHub! If you’re an earth scientist looking to enhance your research through collaboration, version control, and open science, you’ve come to the right place. This blog post will introduce you to the basics of GitHub, explain some essential terminology, and highlight why GitHub is a valuable tool for scientific collaboration.
What is GitHub?
GitHub is a platform for version control and collaboration. It allows you and your team to work together on projects from anywhere, managing changes to documents, code, and other data. This helps ensure transparency, reproducibility, and efficient collaboration in research projects.
Basic Terminology
- Repositories: A repository (or “repo”) is like a project folder. It contains all of the project files (such as data, scripts, documents) and records each file’s revision history. Repositories can be public or private.
- Branches: Branching allows you to diverge from the main project (master branch) to experiment or develop features without affecting the main project. Once you are happy with the changes, you can merge them back into the main branch.
- Commits: A commit is essentially a snapshot of your changes. When you commit, you are taking a ‘snapshot’ of your repository at that point in time, which allows you to go back to this version if needed.
- Pull Requests: Once you have made a commit, you can initiate a pull request. This is a way to propose your changes and discuss them with your collaborators before they are integrated into the main branch.
Why Use GitHub for Scientific Collaboration?
- Track Changes: Everything you do is automatically recorded, which helps in understanding how your project evolved over time.
- Collaboration: Multiple people can work on the same project from different locations, allowing for collaborative input and review.
- Reproducibility: By using GitHub, you ensure that your scientific processes are transparent and reproducible by others, which is a cornerstone of robust scientific research.
- Backup: GitHub uses remote repositories, which means your work is safely stored in the cloud and can be accessed from anywhere.
Getting Started with GitHub
- Create an Account: Visit github.com and sign up for a free account.
- Create a Repository: Once logged in, you can create a new repository by clicking the “New repository” button. Give it a name that reflects your project and decide if you want it to be public or private.
- Make Your First Commit: Add files to your repository either by uploading them directly on GitHub or by using Git on your local machine (read this blog for 5 minutes for setting up). Once your files are uploaded, commit your changes.
- Open a Pull Request: If you are collaborating with others, use the pull request feature to discuss and review changes.
- Merge Your Changes: Once your pull request has been reviewed and approved, you can merge your changes into the main branch.