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Guide to Improving Your OSCR

Open Source Contributor Rating (OSCR) is a metric that measures participation in open source projects. It is a holistic metric that considers the quality of contributions across many areas over a 90-day period. It is scored out of 300.

The OSCR is one way to measure your impact in open source and can act as a positive signal of your value. However, you may want to improve your score. This guide will help you understand how to do so.

How to Improve Your OSCR Score​

OSCR score is calculated based on several factors that can be broadly categorized into the following:

  1. Repository Engagement
  2. Issues & Discussions
  3. Pull Requests (PRs)
  4. Consistency & Quality
  5. Being a Good Open Source Citizen

Improving in these areas will help you improve your OSCR score over time.

Repository Engagement​

This considers how you engage with repositories, including repository forks, stars, and commits. You can improve your score in this area by:

Starring repositories you genuinely intend to contribute to​

While starring repositories is a great way to show your interest and support for a project, taking time and contributing to your starred repositories is even better. And it's a great way to boost your OSCR score.

Forking repositories with the intention to contribute​

Forking repositories of projects you like is an amazing first step towards contributing to them. Going a step further and contributing to your forked repositories will help you improve your OSCR score.

Issues & Discussions​

This takes into account how you interact with open source repositories through issues and discussions. You can improve your score in this area by:

Opening meaningful issues​

Opening issues is a good way to ease into making contributions and is very helpful to the project. You can improve your OSCR score by making sure the issues you open are:

  • meaningful,
  • explain the problem clearly,
  • follow the issue template, if provided.

Engaging in discussions​

Leaving helpful comments on issues and Pull Requests (PRs) through clarifying issues raised or attempting to reproduce reported issues is helpful to the project and is a good way to improve your OSCR score.

Reacting to issues and comments​

Reacting to issues and comments is a fun way to engage with the community around an open source project and can be a way to upvote issues you'd like prioritized.

Pull Requests (PRs)​

This takes into account the quality of any PRs you make and how they are received. You can improve your score in this area by:

Opening and merging PRs​

Opening PRs is great for your score, but merging your PRs significantly boosts your OSCR score. A few ways you can increase the chances of your PRs being merged are:

  • Tying your PRs to existing issues or creating issues for them first.
  • Following the project's contribution guidelines.
  • Making small commits and keeping your PRs small.

Creating quality PRs regularly​

Opening PRs on the regular is great for your score but getting your PRs closed instead of merged can quickly hurt your score. You can reduce the chances of your PRs being closed by avoiding unsolicited PRs and following the above tips for opening PRs.

Providing thoughtful reviews on PRs​

Reviewing other contributors' PRs is a great way to help the project's maintainers and contribute towards your score. Keeping your reviews respectful and giving feedback in a kind manner all improve your OSCR score.

Collaborating effectively​

Participating in constructive discussions respectfully and in a meaningful way improves your OSCR score.

Consistency & Quality​

This takes into account your consistency over time and the quality of your contributions. You can improve your score in this area by:

Contributing consistently over time​

Maintaining regular contributions over time will improve your score as OSCR considers a 90-day window.

Focusing on quality over quantity​

While consistency is important, it's equally important to ensure that your contributions are meaningful and don't just aim to fill a quota. Contributions that are impactful and well-received will improve your score.

Being patient​

The score considers a 90-day window, so consistent positive contributions will improve your score over time.

Being a Good Open Source Citizen​

This takes into account your overall behavior and engagement in an open source community. You can improve your score in this area by:

Avoiding any behavior that could be flagged as spam​

Communicate and engage in a reasonable way to avoid being flagged as spam. Remember that most interactions in the open source space are text-based and can be misinterpreted. Therefore, be mindful of your potential tone. Being marked as spam negatively impacts your score and your reputation in the community.

Maintaining a positive presence​

Ensure your interactions are constructive and respectful, as negative behavior can heavily penalize your score.

Helping others​

Reviewing PRs and commenting on issues, even when you're not the original author, shows your commitment to helping the community and improves your score. Helping other contributors increases your trust in the community.

Improving your OSCR score is a long-term effort that involves consistently engaging in issues, opening and reviewing PRs, and being a good open source citizen. So be patient with it and remember that the score is a measure of your engagement and contribution to open source, not a reflection of your worth as a developer.