Publishing
Publishing puts an approved document or position on a public page that anyone can read without an account: the text with every citation, the sources it cites, who wrote, approved and published it, and a changelog. A published version never changes. A correction is a new version at the same link, with a note saying what it corrects; a withdrawal takes the page down and keeps the record.
Publishing is part of the Evidence & Content Studio. Documents are published from their Publish tab (see The writing studio), positions from their Publication tab (see Doctrine Engine).
Who can publish
Editors and owners publish, correct and withdraw. Researchers and project leads see what blocks publishing and the published versions, but an editor publishes. In a personal workspace you publish your own work, and the page says it was self-approved.
What has to be true first
A document is published only when all of this holds for its current revision. The Publish tab lists whatever is still in the way:
- it is approved (see Research notes, Review);
- it is not empty;
- no statement is marked unsupported: cite it or remove it first;
- every citation is resolved: the citation-support check found it supported, or an editor confirmed it for this revision.
A position is published from its approved revision. Every empirical claim and assumption it rests on must cite evidence; a normative claim need not.
Save your edits before publishing: the published version is the saved, approved revision, exactly as it was reviewed.
Publishing
On the Publish tab, choose Publish (for a position, Publish the approved revision). The page is live at once at its public link, shown as Public at … (for a position, Public page: …). A publication has:
- a link to its latest version, which always shows the newest version that is not withdrawn;
- a link to each version as it was published, with a later correction linked above it;
- PDF, Word and Markdown downloads of each version;
- the organization's page, which lists all of its published documents and positions.
These links never change: share them, link to them, print them. They name no workspace or member: people appear by name only (or as "a member of" the organization), and nothing about the drafts, comments, suggestions or other revisions is public.
The page shows the document type and organization, the title, who published it and when, who approved it and when, the author, the place it applies to and the version; then the text with its numbered citations (for a position, the position, its rationale, the claims it rests on with their citations, and its principles); the Sources, each with its publisher, page, link and terms; the Changelog; and how the citations were checked ("2 citations: 1 supported by the citation-support check, 1 confirmed by a reviewer"). A source is quoted only when its terms permit quoting in publications; otherwise the page links to it. A private upload is cited without a link.
The PDF, DOCX and HTML copies are made in the background after publishing. Markdown is available at once. The PDF download shows "not found" for about a minute, while the PDF is made. If the copies cannot be made, the page itself is unaffected and the Publish tab says so.
Corrections
Edit the document as usual: the edit returns it to draft, so it must be reviewed (and its citations checked and resolved) again. Then publish again: the Publish tab asks What this version corrects, and Publish correction publishes the next version at the same link. The latest-version link shows the correction with its note ("Correction to version 1: …"); the earlier version stays readable at its own link, with a notice that a correction replaces it. A position's correction works the same way from its Publication tab.
Withdrawing
Withdraw on a published version takes its page down: its link shows This publication was withdrawn, and the latest-version link falls back to the newest version still published (or shows the same notice when none is). Say why: the reason is kept in the record, not shown on the page. A withdrawal cannot be undone; publish again to put a corrected version back up.
The record
Every publication, correction and withdrawal is in the audit log with who did it and when, and appears in the document's or position's publication list. The organization's members are notified when a document or position is published.