Publishing versions and making a guideline publicly accessible

Publishing (including public access) are set in the "Publishing, version history and subscription" tab in guideline settings. 

NOTE: Only guidelines administrators can publish guidelines affiliated with their organizations. You must be in Edit mode in order to be able to make any edits to your guideline, including publishing (you should see "DRAFT" next to the guideline title - if you see the "Edit" button, click it to go into Edit mode).

Difference between publishing a new guideline version and making a published guideline public

Publishing a new guideline version and making a guideline public are two separate steps on our platform.

Each time you publish, you are taking a "snapshot" of what the guideline looks like in that moment.You can publish many sequential versions, for internal review, for peer review, for safe keeping or to keep a stepwise version history. However, it is not until you decide to release a version (or multiple versions) for public access that it can be accessed by everyone.

As an example, you can consider writing and printing a book. You can print/publish 100 copies of it, give out to people you know, or store it away - it's not until you put it in a store or publish a copy online that the public can read it.

Publishing a new guideline version

Each published version of your guideline will be numbered sequentially, and whether it was a major or a minor version. Major versions are called v1.0, v2.0, v3.0 etc; minor versions are called v1.1, v1.2, v1.3, etc.
We suggest you use minor versions (e.g. v0.1) in the initial development phase, or for minor corrections (e.g. typos), and use major versions (e.g. v1.0) for new public versions.
You can make a comment about what is updated, or its implications, every time you make a new update/new version.

Making a published guideline public

When ticking the checkbox for "Public Access," everyone can find your guideline and read it online. Publicly accessible guidelines will be marked with a green PUBLIC label.
If you change your mind or need to withdraw the guideline from public view, you simply un-tick the "Public Access," and the guideline will no longer be able to be found or read by everyone.

NOTE: If a guideline has ever been made public, at least one version must remain publicly accessible. While you can remove public access from other versions, you cannot make all versions private. One version must always be marked as public.

For more information on versions, see Versioning and labels: understanding, accessing, and managing guideline versions.