docs: adds guidelines for contributing to README

.github/pull_request_template.md

@@ -5,4 +5,5 @@ Before submitting this PR, please make sure:
 - [ ] You have added a few sentences describing the PR here.
 - [ ] You have added yourself or the appropriate individual as the assignee.
 - [ ] You have added the relevant groups/individuals to the reviewers.
+- [ ] Your commit messages conform to the [Conventional Commits](https://www.conventionalcommits.org/en/v1.0.0/) standard.
 - [ ] You have updated the README or other documentation to account for these changes (when appropriate).

README.md

@@ -14,4 +14,17 @@
     <a href="https://github.com/cbiit/ccdi-federation-api/issues/new?assignees=&labels=&template=bug_report.md&title=Descriptive%20Title&labels=bug">Report A Bug</a>
     <br />
   </p>
-</p>
+</p>
+
+## Contributing
+
+### Development Process
+
+- Changes are first discussed in the [discussions](https://github.com/cbiit/ccdi-federation-api/discussions) section of the repo. The purpose of these discussions is to describe your idea(s), receive feedback from other implementors, and ultimately gain support within the community for these features.
+- Once a set of changes has been approved via the discussions mechanism, work can commence on a [pull request](https://github.com/cbiit/ccdi-federation-api/discussions) implementing these changes.
+
+### Repository Details
+
+- This repository uses the [Conventional Commit](https://www.conventionalcommits.org/en/v1.0.0/) style for commit messages. Please make sure all commits conform to this style.
+- This repository, as well as the API itself, are versioned using the latest version of [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/).
+- All changes will either be squashed and merged or rebased off of the `main` branch—no merge commits are allowed in this repository.