diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index ea556e4bc7dcbf4c78a647218f01ed39affd1413..41131d7236eeca2a39a16588d7820b86b223c100 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -20,6 +20,11 @@ highly recommended developers install [Commitizen](https://commitizen.github.io/
 it extends the git command and will make writing commit messages a breeze. All the Aparapi
 repositories are configured with local Commitizen configuration scripts.
 
+Commit messages are used to automatically generate our changelogs, and to ensure
+commits are searchable in a useful way. So please use the Commitizen tool and adhere to
+the commit message standard or else we cannot accept Pull Requests without editing
+them first.
+
 Below is an example of a properly formated commit message.
 
 ```