diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index d4b59b9ce..f56107e18 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -34,3 +34,21 @@ options are available. For python bindings, see `the python docs`__.
 .. __: docs/building.rst
 .. __: docs/python_binding.rst
 
+pull request checklist
+......................
+
+When creating a pull request, please consider the following checklist:
+
+* make sure both travis-CI and appveyor builds are green. Note that on gcc and
+  clang warnings are treated as errors. Some tests may be flapping, if so,
+  please issue a rebuild of the specific build configuration. (I'm working on
+  making all tests deterministic)
+* If adding a user-facing feature, please add brief entry to ``ChangeLog``
+* Add a unit test to confirm the new behavior or feature. Don't forget negative
+  tests (i.e. failure cases) and please pay as much care to tests as you would
+  production code.
+* rebase on top of master periodically
+* if your patch is against the current stable release branch, please also
+  forward-poret the patch to master (at the time of this writing, automatic
+  merge in git does not work, possibly because the branch was created in svn)
+