providing basic readme context

README.md

@@ -1,3 +1,31 @@
-# beacon
+# The BEACON model
 
-More documentation will be available very soon.
+##### Note, March 27, 2024: More documentation will be available very soon.
+
+
+This repo contains open source code for the BEACON electricity access estimation model, as which generated the access layers visible on the Open Energy Maps™ (OEMaps) (https://www.openenergymaps.org/) platform. 
+
+Please refer to Open Energy Maps™ (OEMaps)'s [documentation](https://openenergymaps.org/docs/OEMaps_Documentation_20240326.pdf) for more information.
+
+
+# Citing this work
+
+We are still working on our academic paper. In the meantime, please refer to and cite this PhD thesis:
+
+~~~~
+Lee, S.J. Multimodal Data Fusion for Estimating Electricity Access and Demand (Doctoral Thesis). Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2023. Retrieved from https://stephenjl.com/pdf/sjl-phd-thesis-final_20230831.pdf
+~~~~
+
+Bibtex:
+
+~~~~
+@phdthesis{lee2023multimodal,
+  title={Multimodal Data Fusion for Estimating Electricity Access and Demand},
+  author={Lee, Stephen J},
+  year={2023},
+  school={Massachusetts Institute of Technology}
+~~~~
+
+# Sponsors and Collaborators
+
+Please refer to Open Energy Maps™ (OEMaps)'s [documentation](https://openenergymaps.org/docs/OEMaps_Documentation_20240326.pdf) for a list of sponsors and collaborators.