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+# Reviewer guide
+
+The purpose of this document is to describe how to review ecosystem packages.
+
+Users add pull requests to request to be added to the scverse ecosystem package listing.
+To be added, the the packages must fulfil the criteria listed in the ecosystems-package [README](https://github.com/scverse/ecosystem-packages#checklist-for-adding-packages).
+Users are asked as part of their PR to add the checklist to the main PR comment and to fill it faithfully.
+Your job as reviewer is to assess if the all checklist criteria are fulfilled.
+Additionally, in case you notice anything else that could be improved (technically, or scientifically)
+you can point that out during the review, but highlight that this is independnet of the criteria required
+for package approval.
+
+Check the [package schema](https://github.com/scverse/ecosystem-packages/blob/main/scripts/src/ecosystem_scripts/schema.json) for additional context.
+
+## 1. Check if the checklist exists and is the same as the original one in the README
+
+Some users modify the checklist or leave out points or do not provide any checklist at all.
+All "mandatory" points from the original checklist must be fulfilled.
+
+## 2. check the meta.yaml
+
+- The meta.yaml must follow the [package schema](https://github.com/scverse/ecosystem-packages/blob/main/scripts/src/ecosystem_scripts/schema.json).
+- This is already checked by github actions -- if there are failures, point them out to the user before continuing to review.
+- The only category users can submit to is `ecosystem` (`core` packages require a special approval process).
+
+## 3. Check the license
+
+- license declared in the meta.yaml matches the license in the repo `LICENSE` file and in metadata fields of the package (e.g. pyproject.toml).
+- A `LICENSE` file is mandatory
+- license is indeed OSI-approved
+
+## 4. Check releases
+
+- releases are available on PyPI or any other approved registry.
+- The repo makes use of github releases, or at least uses git tags that are consistent with the releases on the registry.
+- The `version` field in `meta.yaml` must match the latest version of the package at the time of submission of the PR.
+
+## 5. Automated tests
+
+- Check the source code of the package if automated tests cover essential functions of the package and a reasonable range of inputs and conditions.
+- At least all user-facing (public) functions should be covered by tests, but there can be exceptions, e.g. if a function is trivial or there are good reasons why it can't be tested automatically (e.g. slow and doesn't work with toy data)
+- Minimal tests ensure that the function does not fail on an example data set. Ideally, tests also ensure the correctness of the results, e.g. by comparing against a snapshot. Provide feedback on how good the test quality is.
+
+## 6. Continuous integration
+
+- Check the repo that CI scripts exist that execute the automated tests from (4).
+- Check that the CI checks are actually executed (on commits to main and PRs)
+- Typically, this is done in github actions, but other CI systems are allowed, too.
+
+## 7. API docs
+
+- API documentation must exist. API documentation is an overview of all public functions provided by the package with a documentation of their parameters.
+- Typically this is done via sphinx-autodocs, but it is ok to have it in a README or any other documentation system, as long as it's comprehensive.
+
+## 8. data structures
+
+- The package must be interoperable with other scverse packages by using its data structures
+- AnnData for unimodal omics data
+- MuData for multimodal omics data
+- SpatialData for spatially resolved omics data.
+
+## 9. author approval
+
+- The author must have ticked the checkbox "I am an author or maintainer of the tool and agree on listing the package on the scverse website"