Feature Request: render README.md on dataset landing page

[sguyader]

Summary

When a dataset contains a README.md file, automatically render it as formatted HTML on the dataset landing page — similar to how GitHub and GitLab display README files in repository root views.

Problem

Researchers commonly include a README.md to document data structure, methodology, and usage instructions. Currently, Dataverse displays this file as plain text or requires users to download it, losing all Markdown formatting (headings, tables, links, code blocks).

This forces an unnecessary extra step and makes dataset landing pages less informative at a glance.

Proposed behaviour

• Detect README.md (case-insensitive) at the dataset root on ingest or update
• Render it as sanitized HTML on the landing page, below the metadata section and above the file listing
• Use a standard parser (e.g. CommonMark / flexmark-java)
• Strip unsafe tags (<script>, <iframe>, etc.) to prevent XSS
• Provide a toggle to view the raw file
• Make the feature opt-in via a JVM/config flag for installation administrators

Prior art

Platform	Behaviour
GitHub	Renders README.md on repository root page
GitLab	Same as GitHub
Zenodo	Renders description field as Markdown HTML
OSF	Renders README.md on project pages

Interim fallback

If full README rendering is out of scope, extending the existing file preview to render any .md file as formatted HTML would be a valuable first step.

[pdurbin]

@sguyader yes, great idea. As you may know, we are rewriting the UI of Dataverse from JSF to React. (And for this reason we are trying to change the JSF UI as little as possible.) We have a very similar feature request for the React UI here:

• Feature Request/Idea: Add README tab to display dataset documentation (similar to software forges) dataverse-frontend#911

Can you please take a look and leave a comment with any details that might be missing?