diff --git a/.mailmap b/.mailmap
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..21dafa85f00f86167ab7353749d805dae55e8d6a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.mailmap
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Andy Boughton <abought@gmail.com> <pchemist@gmail.com>
+Greg Wilson <gvwilson@software-carpentry.org> <gvwilson@third-bit.com>
diff --git a/.update-copyright.conf b/.update-copyright.conf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..fb6f9898f5c7f5eae9e304faf530401a570f10a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.update-copyright.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+[project]
+vcs: Git
+
+[files]
+authors: yes
+files: no
diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..518f5d0aab862b0512fe30fd7abcdb54f77b1789
--- /dev/null
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+lesson-template was written by:
+Aaron O'Leary <aaron.oleary@gmail.com>
+Andy Boughton <abought@gmail.com>
+Bill Mills <mills.wj@gmail.com>
+Greg Wilson <gvwilson@software-carpentry.org>
+James Allen <jamesallen0108@gmail.com>
+John Blischak <jdblischak@gmail.com>
+Raniere Silva <raniere@ime.unicamp.br>
+Rémi Emonet <remi.emonet@reverse--com.heeere>
+Timothée Poisot <tim@poisotlab.io>
+Trevor Bekolay <tbekolay@gmail.com>
+W. Trevor King <wking@tremily.us>
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 695ebe4e86d8ae222a62b8cf06ac937f61720a9f..09d4a2b4fa23bf868e5e1b3475af8f429717d3a3 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 CommonMark
 pandocfilters
 PyYAML
+update-copyright