Add contributing guidelines

Author: olivhoenen

CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

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+# Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct
+
+## Our Pledge
+
+In the interest of fostering an open and welcoming environment, we as
+contributors and maintainers pledge to make participation in our project and
+our community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body
+size, disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression,
+level of experience, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal
+appearance, race, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.
+
+## Our Standards
+
+Examples of behavior that contributes to creating a positive environment
+include:
+
+* Using welcoming and inclusive language
+* Being respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences
+* Gracefully accepting constructive criticism
+* Focusing on what is best for the community
+* Showing empathy towards other community members
+
+Examples of unacceptable behavior by participants include:
+
+* The use of sexualized language or imagery and unwelcome sexual attention or
+  advances
+* Trolling, insulting/derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks
+* Public or private harassment
+* Publishing others' private information, such as a physical or electronic
+  address, without explicit permission
+* Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a
+  professional setting
+
+## Our Responsibilities
+
+Project maintainers are responsible for clarifying the standards of acceptable
+behavior and are expected to take appropriate and fair corrective action in
+response to any instances of unacceptable behavior.
+
+Project maintainers have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or
+reject comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, and other contributions
+that are not aligned to this Code of Conduct, or to ban temporarily or
+permanently any contributor for other behaviors that they deem inappropriate,
+threatening, offensive, or harmful.
+
+## Scope
+
+This Code of Conduct applies within all project spaces, and it also applies when
+an individual is representing the project or its community in public spaces.
+Examples of representing a project or community include using an official
+project e-mail address, posting via an official social media account, or acting
+as an appointed representative at an online or offline event. Representation of
+a project may be further defined and clarified by project maintainers.
+
+## Enforcement
+
+Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be
+reported by contacting the project team at <imas-administration@iter.org>. All
+complaints will be reviewed and investigated and will result in a response that
+is deemed necessary and appropriate to the circumstances. The project team is
+obligated to maintain confidentiality with regard to the reporter of an incident.
+Further details of specific enforcement policies may be posted separately.
+
+Project maintainers who do not follow or enforce the Code of Conduct in good
+faith may face temporary or permanent repercussions as determined by other
+members of the project's leadership.
+
+## Attribution
+
+This Code of Conduct is adapted from the [Contributor Covenant][homepage], version 1.4,
+available at https://www.contributor-covenant.org/version/1/4/code-of-conduct.html
+

CONTRIBUTING.md

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+# Contributing guidelines
+
+We welcome any kind of contribution to `IMAS-Java`, 
+from a simple comment, a question or even a full fledged pull 
+request. 
+Please first make sure you read and follow the 
+[Code of Conduct](CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md).
+
+## You think you found a bug in the code, or have a question in its use
+1. use the [issue search](https://github.com/iterorganization/IMAS-Java/issues)
+to check if someone already created a similar issue;
+2. if not, make a **new issue** to describe your problem or question. 
+In the case of a bug suspiscion, please try to give all the relevant 
+information to allow reproducing the error or identifying 
+its root cause (version of the IMAS-Java, OS and relevant 
+dependencies, snippet of code);
+3. apply relevant labels to the issue.
+
+## You want to make or ask some change to the code
+1. use the [issue search](https://github.com/iterorganization/IMAS-Java/issues)
+to check if someone already proposed a similar idea/change;
+2. if not, create a **new issue** to describe what change you would like to see 
+implemented and specify it if you intend to work on it yourself or if some help 
+will be needed;
+3. wait until some kind of consensus is reached about your idea being relevant, 
+at which time the issue will be assigned (to you or someone else who can work on 
+this topic);
+4. if you do the development yourself, fork the repository to your own Github 
+profile and create your own feature branch off of the latest develop commit. 
+Make sure to regularly sync your branch with the latest commits from `develop` 
+(find instructions 
+[here](https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/working-with-forks/syncing-a-fork));
+5. when your development is ready, create a pull request (find instructions 
+[here](https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/proposing-changes-to-your-work-with-pull-requests/creating-a-pull-request-from-a-fork)).
+
+
+While we will try to answer questions quickly and to address issues in a timely 
+manner, it can may sometimes take longer than expected. A friendly ping in the 
+discussion or the issue thread can help draw attention if you find that it was 
+stalled.