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+**contributor guidelines**
+
+
+When submitting a pull request (PR), or reviewing existing PR's in preparation for merge, please ensure the following criteria are met:
+
+* PR relates to a prior filed issue, and the issue number is included in the body of the PR.
+* The PR (not the issue) is targeted at the relevant milestone. If the PR is against master, target the current/latest milestone.
+* The issue number is NOT in the title of the commit message. The issue MAY be included in the body of the commit message, but not the title.
+* The PR title should be usable to populate the changelog.
+* The PR description should clearly describe the functional change being made
+* Unrelated functional changes are submitted separately.
+* Note any limitations of the fix.
+* Fix/feature being added has been coded in a similar style, or taken a similar logical pattern to the rest of the codebase.
+* PR should, where possible, relate to a single issue
+* All commits relating to a single issue in a PR are squashed to a single commit.
+* The commit message and PR title should not contain typos
+* The PR should be submitted against the correct branch. If the PR is against master, and the original issue was labeled with 'backport potential', 'cherry-pick -x' the issue from master into the relevant stable branch, and submit a separate PR to that branch
+
+When submitting an issue, or working on an issue, please ensure the following criteria are met:
+
+* The description clearly states or describes the original problem or root cause of the problem.
+* Include historical information on how the problem was identified.
+* Any relevant logs are included.
+* If the issue is a bug that needs fixing in a branch other than Master, add the ‘backport potential’ tag TO THE ISSUE (not the PR).
+* The provided information should be totally self-contained. External access to web services/sites should not be needed.
+* If the issue is needed for a hotfix release, add the 'expedite' label.
+* Steps to reproduce the problem if possible.