The summer was full of connection, collaboration, and momentum in the pyOpenSci community. Whether you joined us at SciPy, submitted a package for review, or just lurked in Slack, we’re so grateful you’re here!

Here’s what’s been happening 👇


💬 Community Shoutouts

Welcome, Philip Narteh!

We’re thrilled to welcome Philip Narteh as pyOpenSci’s very first Open Source Infrastructure Intern, supported by Quansight Labs, Melissa Mendonça, and Tania Allard. Philip will be helping us migrate our website to Django, bringing valuable experience in accessibility within the Django ecosystem. We’re so excited to have you here, Philip!

Contributor milestones

We’ve also had some meaningful leadership transitions happen.

  • Tracy Teal completed her term as our founding Executive Council Chair after three transformative years. The Executive Council is the leadership body that guides pyOpenSci’s strategy, governance, and long-term sustainability. You can think of it as the group that helps us make big-picture decisions and ensures our work stays aligned with our mission. Learn more about the Executive Council.
  • Karen Cranston has stepped in as our new Executive Council Chair, and April Johnson has joined as a new Council member.

These transitions highlight pyOpenSci’s growing maturity and sustainability as an organization.

We also want to celebrate our editorial team:

  • Eliot Robson transitioned into the Editor-in-Chief role for our peer review process.
  • Chiara Marmo and Isabel Zimmerman wrapped up their terms as Editors after years of thoughtful reviews and community care. Thank you both!

🎤 SciPy 2025 Highlights

Over 60 people joined our Birds of a Feather (BoF) session to discuss challenges in research software and what community-driven peer review can do to help. It was one of our most energizing community sessions yet!

We also:

  • Kicked off the conference with our packaging workshop, introducing folks to our user-friendly template and modern tools like Hatch and UV.
  • Welcomed many first-time contributors at our community sprint, with over 30 PRs opened in one day!
  • Shared lightning talks, saw Pixi in action, and even got a SciPy Song shoutout.

Big thanks to everyone who contributed to our SciPy presence—especially Jonny Saunders, Avik Basu, Jeremiah Paige, Inessa Pawson, Carol Willing, Tetsuo Koyama, and many others who made our workshop and sprints welcoming and impactful.

📖Read: Highlights from SciPy 2025: Building Community, Code, and Culture


🔍 Peer Review Updates

We’re excited to see continued momentum in our software review process! Right now, 13 packages are actively under review, and another 10 are in prereview (the early stage before formal review begins). You can explore the live review status board anytime to follow along.

🎉 Recently accepted packages include:

A big congratulations to the maintainers of these projects, and a thank you to the reviewers and editors who supported them through the process.

📦 Interested in submitting your own Python package?

👉 Read our guide and submit here


🧠 Community Learning + Behind-the-Scenes

Event Recap: Improving Research Software through Peer Review

On August 7, we partnered with Stanford’s OSPO for a virtual session exploring how pyOpenSci’s peer review model strengthens research software and supports contributor recognition.

New blog updates

If our blog posts feel a little more structured, community-centered, and friendly lately—say hi to our new Communications and Community Lead, Mandy Moore! She’s been working behind the scenes on everything from SEO-friendly image tags to blog polish to social media storytelling.

Bonus: She even learned a little HTML for it. 😉

📖Read: Meet Mandy Moore, pyOpenSci’s new Communications and Community Lead!


📅 Upcoming Events

October 2, 2025 – Create a Python Package: A Hands-On Workshop

This workshop is being held for the Stanford Open Source Program office community through our new membership model. We are excited to host another live online workshop on Spatial Chat, where we’ll walk you through building your first Python package using Hatch, UV, and other modern tools—complete with a ready-to-use GitHub Codespace. (9 AM PT / 10 AM MT)

November 6, 2025 – Create a Python Package: A Hands-On Workshop

It’s not too late to grab a seat in our second Python packaging workshop. Python packaging at your fingertips!

Here, we’ll walk you through building your first Python package using Hatch, UV, and other modern tools—complete with a ready-to-use GitHub Codespace using a custom pyOpenSci template. (9 AM PT / 10 AM MT)

✨ More workshops and events are always in the works—stay tuned via our events page for the latest updates.


🛠️ How You Can Get Involved

  • Volunteer with pyOpenSci – from peer review to outreach, we welcome contributors of all kinds.
  • Join our Slack – connect with the scientific Python and open science community.
  • Follow us – LinkedIn, Mastodon, Bluesky.

👀 On Our Radar

  • We’re working on new policies around the role of generative AI in peer review and open source. It’s a challenging and timely topic, and we’ve opened a GitHub discussion to gather thoughts from the community.
  • We’re also developing policies to support review of packages already reviewed by our partner journal, JOSS.
  • Curious about next-gen Python packaging? Check out uv, Pixi, and Hatch.
  • Keep an eye out for more blogs and contributor spotlights—we’ll be highlighting both technical insights and the people who make this community thrive.

✨ Let’s keep building together.

Until next time,

The pyOpenSci Team 💛

Connect with us!

There are lots of ways to get involved if you are interested!

You can also:

  • Keep an eye on our events page for upcoming training events.

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