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Contribute to the ISC Thank you for considering the contribution of software to the ISC!

There are many benefits to having your software distributed by the ISC:

  • Distribution & Education: The ISC has education and distribution as a major focus. We promote our programming and documentation standards and projects at international conferences and via freely available course notes. Your software will build upon the success of the Insight Toolkit - over 10,000 downloads...
  • Use: The operability of your software will be monitored by the ISC Community. The ITK / ISC has a user base that spans the world (physically as well as in terms of operating systems, compilers, environments, and hardware). People will USE your code, let you know when it doesn't work, and will often fix it for you!
  • Recognition: You will be listed as the contributor of the code, you will become an official ISC developer (careful what you wish for), and if you write a companion article, it will be published in the Insight Software Journal
  • Open-science: You will be promoting open-science and thereby inherit its benefits: others will be able to fully understand your methods via hands-on experience, other will be able to build upon your work and thereby truly advance the field, and you will in-turn be able to compare etc.).

Please consider other distribution options and choose the right one for you:

  • Instead of submitting your software for distribution with the ISC, you may want your software listed under "Related Software." If so, please send an email to Stephen Aylward.
  • Your software may be more appropriate as part of an existing ISC software package. For example, a new registration method would probably have the greatest impact on the community if distributed with the InsightToolkit (ITK). As such, you should consult the submission process of ITK or whatever package you feel is most appropriate.

The following are the initial steps required to contribute new software libraries and applications to the ISC:

  • Before you begin the process of submitting your software package for consideration, please read our Licensing agreement as well as the copyright under which we will be distributing your software. We will need to receive a signed copy of our licensing agreement before we can accept any new software. This is critical to maintaining our open-source, freely available initiative. In particular, your code cannot rely on other copyrighted libraries (e.g., special FFT libraries) and must not contain patented methods! After carefully reviewing those documents, you can print, sign, and then fax the licensing agreement to Joshua Cates, Fax number: 1-801-585-6513.
  • You may wish to email Luis Ibanez or Stephen Aylward to have an informal determination of the appropriateness of your software for distribution by the ISC.
  • Review the coding and documentation standards of ITK. While your code and documentation does not have to follow those exact specification, it is necessary for your code and documentation to match the level of rigor of that specification.
  • Determine the limitations and requirements of your software and documentation. The ISC promotes cross-platform and open-source efforts. Your software cannot require commercial software (e.g., matlab), should work on multiple platforms (not only compile using Visual C++ v6), and should be documented using an open standard, e.g., latex, dyoxygen, or text (not Microsoft word).
  • Once you have chosen to submit your software for distribution by the ISC, send an email to Luis Ibanez describing your software and its limitations and requirements. Your code and documentation will then be assigned an ISC developer to be its "champion," and the review process will begin...

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