Preparation for new feature release 5.2.0, targeting Monday, December 11.

Open PRs that could probably be finished off:

• ENH: Add option to infer CIFTI-2 intent codes #932 (@mgxd)
• DOC: Merged duplicate README and index sections #1205 (@ZviBaratz)
• ENH: Add copy() method to ArrayProxy #1255 (@effigies)
• MNT: do not refer to the optional data packages #1275 (@DimitriPapadopoulos)
• MNT: [:] → .copy() #1276 (@DimitriPapadopoulos)
• TEST: Chdir during doctest to avoid polluting the working dir #1279 (@effigies)
• MNT: Deprecate nibabel.pydicom_compat #1280 (@effigies)

Please comment to flag any other issues that should be addressed.

Pre-release checklist

• Review the open list of nibabel issues. Check whether there are outstanding issues that can be closed, and whether there are any issues that should delay the release. Label them!
• Review and update the release notes. Review and update the Changelog file.
• Look at doc/source/index.rst and add any authors not yet acknowledged.
• Use the opportunity to update the .mailmap file if there are any duplicate authors listed from git shortlog -nse.
• Check the copyright year in doc/source/conf.py
• Refresh the README.rst text from the LONG_DESCRIPTION in info.py by running make refresh-readme.
• Check the dependencies listed in pyproject.toml (e.g., dependencies, project.optional-dependencies) and in doc/source/installation.rst and in requirements.txt. They should at least match. Do they still hold? Make sure nibabel on GitHub Actions is testing the minimum dependencies specifically.
• Make sure all tests pass (from the nibabel root directory): tox

Adapted from http://nipy.org/nibabel/devel/make_release.html#release-checklist