Docs / Revising a problem

Revising a problem

A published problem is never edited in place. Every change is a new revision: a new record, signed with the reviser's ORCID iD, that names the revision it was made from. Earlier revisions stay in the log and on the problem's revision history, unchanged. What a change does depends on whether it touches the question itself.

Who revises what

Problem	Who	What
A person's problem, never accepted	its author	any change; a core change is refused while a result answers the displayed question (make a variant instead)
A person's problem, accepted	its author	a cosmetic change is carried at once; a core change waits for an editor, and is refused while a result answers the displayed question
A seed problem	an editor of its field (with their own iD), or the administrator's editor	cosmetic changes only, carried at once and checked by another editor; they wait while a seed revision batch is under way
Any problem	an editor of its field	moving it to another topic, or marking its status note verified (editorial decisions)

"Edit this problem" on the problem's page opens the form on the latest public revision, with the change shown against the accepted one and whether it will be carried or wait for an editor. An account signs at most 10 revisions a day.

Cosmetic and core changes

The core of a problem is its precise question, what would settle it, its kind and its expected answer; its fingerprint (the core hash) is computed from exactly these. A change that leaves the core hash as it is, against the accepted revision (or the latest public one, for a problem no editor has accepted yet), is cosmetic: the title, the plain text, the references, the status note, when it was posed. Anything else is a core change. PubPhys derives the class itself; it is shown with the revision and never part of what is signed.

Carried. A cosmetic change to an accepted problem, with no other revision waiting, is published with a carry_acceptance record: the acceptance carries over, and the new revision is displayed at once.
Waits for an editor. A core change; a cosmetic change of the literature status; any change to a problem no editor has accepted; and any change made while another revision is waiting. It is published as the latest revision, marked as waiting, while the accepted revision stays displayed until an editor accepts or rejects it. A newer one replaces it.
Any change to the status note clears the "verified" mark of the note.

What a result freezes

Results answer the displayed revision. While a live result answers a revision with the displayed core, a core change is refused and the form offers "Make a variant" instead; results on an older question never freeze the problem. If a result is posted while a core change waits, the editor cannot accept it and rejects it with that reason (results).

From signature to display

Signed. The revision is checked again and stored, not yet public. Only one revision of a problem is on its way at a time.
Screened. With your consent the AI screening reads the revision's fields, as for a new problem; otherwise, or when it is unsure, an editor checks it first (AI).
Published, carried or waiting as above. If the problem changed since you signed (another revision was published or decided), the revision is refused with that reason, you are told, and you edit the new revision.
Decided. An editor of the field accepts or rejects a waiting revision. A rejected one stays in the history; the revision before it is displayed again.

Checking cosmetic edits, and reverts

Every carried cosmetic edit is listed for the field's editors for 90 days. An editor who is neither the problem's author, nor the edit's (nor of a waiting revision it was made from), nor the editor who released it marks it checked, or reverts it: a signed reverse of the carry, which displays the revision before the edit again. A revision waiting or on its way that was made from the reverted one is rejected with it, with the reason "the revision it was based on was reverted"; you are told which, and you sign any change you still want again. A revert undone on appeal displays the edit again; the edit then counts as checked and is not reverted again.

Revision history

Each problem has a page listing its revisions with their state (accepted, waiting, superseded, rejected, removed), class and signer, and each revision's page shows its change against the revision it was made from. A revision is public once it was published; one still being screened or rejected at screening is shown to its author and the field's editors only.

Appeals

A revision's author may appeal its rejection, its rejection at screening and the revert of a cosmetic edit, once each, within 30 days, while revisions are accepted (appeals). Refusals that PubPhys writes itself (the problem changed meanwhile, or a revert rejected it) are covered by the appeal of the decision behind them.

On a seed problem, editors' revisions, the decisions on them, moving the problem to another topic, marking its status note verified, granting an appeal of a decision on one, and removing a revision for abuse or spam all wait while a seed revision batch is prepared, approved, or written and not yet anchored (the seed batch). A removal for copyright or personal data never waits.

An appeal of a decision on a revision becomes moot when the problem's displayed or latest revision changes so that a grant could no longer apply: another revision is published or decided. A grant could then only restore something out of date, so you sign a fresh revision instead.

Removal

An editor may remove a revision (copyright, personal data, abuse or spam): its content is withheld for good. The revision before it is displayed again; if none can be, the whole problem is removed. Its author is told the category only. While a live result answers the displayed question, an accepted revision whose removal would display another question is not removed alone: the whole problem is.

Editorial decisions

Moved to another topic (reassign_topic): the problem goes under another accepted topic, with its results, comments and followers. A move to another field is the chief editor's; the problem's pending items then go to the new field's editors.
Status note verified (verify_note): an editor checked the status note; any later change of the note clears the mark.

Both are open while revisions are, and signed by an editor of the problem's field (or the chief editor), never by the problem's author, and the author and followers are told of a move, and so are the followers of the topic it moves into (notifications).