Preparing to Submit

Forecasts can be submitted once per week, at any time between @START_WEEKDAY@ and @END_WEEKDAY@ (@FINAL_TIME@ GMT).

We rely on GitHub to store and interact with forecasts. To submit a forecast, you will need a free GitHub account.

Broadly, the steps to submit are:

1. Fork this repository (called flu-forecast-hub)

   • Use the Fork button at the top right
   • (optional) In case you want to keep your fork synchronized with the main repository, configure a remote and sync your fork

2. Create a new sub-directory for your team. Each team stores their forecasts in a separate folder within the model-output folder of this repository. Before submitting your first forecast, please create and name your own folder in the format:

   team-model

   Where:

   • team is the team name
   • model is the name of your model

   Both team and model must be less than 15 characters and can include only uppercase or lowercase letters, digits, the _ and the + sign. If submitting multiple models, please create a team-model folder for each one.

3. Create a metadata file, including information about the team and methods. The metadata file should be placed in the model-metadata/ folder and named similarly to the sub-directory: team-model.yml

4. Submit forecasts by creating a pull request

It is possible to submit the forecasts in two different ways, depending on personal preferences and technical expertise: the gitHub Web interface and the command line. The steps above are explained in more detail in the following pages, providing instructions for:

• submitting via the website
• submitting via the command line

If you are new to GitHub and pull request, here are some helpful beginner guides to Github.