CITATION.cff under .github

[sorawee]

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GitHub supports the CITATION.cff metadata (https://github.blog/2021-08-19-enhanced-support-citations-github/). However, it requires that the file must be at the project root. This is undesirable for projects that wish to keep the project root uncluttered.

We would prefer if GitHub could also look for CITATION.cff under the .github directory. The directory is already used for many other things, like workflows, issue template, etc. This would allow us to keep the project root tidy while benefiting from the feature.

Thanks!

[jdevfullstack]

what would being tidy results to ? is there any other practical benefit other than being tidy in the root ?

[sorawee]

README is shown after file listing. Having many files means anyone who visits the page must scroll down farther than needed.

It's also about organization and consistency. Most GitHub-specific features, like issue templates and workflows, consult the .github directory.

[jdevfullstack]

I'm not very sure of your situation but any file can simply be search at Go to file feature because, like in PHP Laravel Development, it's sometimes very hard to find a specific file, whether a view or a controller or a migration file, but we can't change the folder structure of PHP Laravel, so the best solution is to simply use the Go to file feature of GitHub and it's problem solved

[sorawee]

It looks like GitHub can already support looking for the citation file in non-root locations. From https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/managing-your-repositorys-settings-and-features/customizing-your-repository/about-citation-files#other-citation-files:

# Note these are case-insensitive and must be in the root of the repository
CITATION
CITATIONS
CITATION.bib
CITATIONS.bib
CITATION.md
CITATIONS.md

# CITATION files for R packages are typically found at inst/CITATION
inst/CITATION

This request simply asks that .github/CITATION.cff is added to the above list.

[vilkinsons]

+1 for this. On the basis that alternative citation locations are already supported, for consistency with the allowed .github placement location for CODEOWNERS, SECURITY.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md and other repo-level files... it feels like this should be supported.

[spdegabrielle]

+1 for this - here is an example in a prominent open source project

racket/racket#4140 (comment)