# Contributing to Academic

For **help**, **support**, and **questions** please use our **[community chat](https://spectrum.chat/academic)**  🚑.

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## Where to Start

Learn [how to contribute code on Github](https://codeburst.io/a-step-by-step-guide-to-making-your-first-github-contribution-5302260a2940).

If you're a developer looking to contribute, but you're not sure where to begin, check out the [good first issue](https://github.com/gcushen/hugo-academic/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22good+first+issue%22) label on Github, which contains small tasks that have been specifically flagged as being friendly to new contributors.

After that, if you're looking for something a little more challenging to sink your teeth into, there's a broader [help wanted](https://github.com/gcushen/hugo-academic/labels/help%20wanted) label encompassing issues which need some love.

If you have a straightforward bug fix or improvement, feel free to contribute it in a [Pull Request](https://github.com/gcushen/hugo-academic/pulls).

If you have an idea for a new feature, please start by [searching the issues](https://github.com/gcushen/hugo-academic/issues) to check that the feature has not already been suggested and then suggest it by [opening a new issue](https://github.com/gcushen/hugo-academic/issues/new/choose), as adding new features to Academic first requires some analysis around the design and spec.

To contribute a **new language pack**, refer to the [language pack guide](https://sourcethemes.com/academic/docs/language/#create-or-modify-a-language-pack). Once created, place you language pack in `academic/i18n/`, add the name of the language to `academic/data/i18n/language.yaml`, and open a Pull Request on Github with these two files.

To contribute to **Academic Admin**, the automatic publication importer, refer to [its dedicated Github repository](https://github.com/sourcethemes/academic-admin).

## Stickers

🖼️ [Decorate your laptop or journal with an Academic **sticker**](https://www.redbubble.com/people/neutreno/works/34387919-academic)

## Donations

As a pure community-driven open source project, we welcome your support:

  - ☕️ [**Donate a coffee**](https://paypal.me/cushen)
  - 💵 [Become a backer on **Patreon**](https://www.patreon.com/cushen)

## Other ways to help

If you're not a developer there are still plenty of ways that you can help. We always need help with:

- Helping our Academic community on the [chat](https://spectrum.chat/academic)
- Improving the [documentation](https://sourcethemes.com/academic/docs/) and writing tutorials
  - Just click the _Edit_ button at the bottom of pages or contribute to the [documentation repository](https://github.com/sourcethemes/academic-www)
- Testing and quality assurance
- Hosting local Academic themed events or meetups
- Promoting Academic to others by blogging, vlogging, code streaming, talking etc.
