This is a work-in-progress document of best practices for model websites. Model websites in this context refer to the websites describing Open Source energy models.
Examples of websites which this best practice guide could be compared against and should be useful for are: TEMOA, OSeMOSYS, Renpass, as well as the website of all other models in the openmod model database.
The best practice guide was originally developed at the openmod Workshop London, 2015, by the “model testing” break-out group.
Note: The bullet list below is just the first version of this document. You are invited to expand each point into proper headlines and fill it with more contents. Also, screen-shots and other visualisations are highly appreciated.
Best pracices for model websites:
- Clear and concise introductory documentation
- Case study to demonstrate the model and possible applications and example results for beginners (excellent example is Osemosys with interactive case study)
- Using GitHub (or similar platforms) for code management (excellent example for this is TEMOA)
- List of publications
- Communication platform (Mailinglist, Forum, Google Group)
- Website based documentation more appealing than one big PDF file
- Explaining installation of basic software needed for running the model
- Clear statement of Open Source license (should be one from approved by the OpenSource Initiative: http://opensource.org/licenses
- Contact details with profile pictures (gives a nice and approachable touch to the website)
- Clear indication of which paper to cite when using the model
