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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 organization 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: Once you have a guideline that is public, you cannot publish internal-only versions (i.e. versions not accessible to the public) - the most recently published version must be public. You can un-tick public access for previous versions, but if you un-tick public access for the most recently published version, no one will be able to access the guideline. 



All published versions can be accessed in version history

All published versions of a guideline (including a MAGICapp link, PDF, and JSON data file), are available under version history.

NOTE: Once you publish a guideline, you can only edit your new version - you cannot revert your guideline into a previous version. 




Labels - DRAFT, recently published, and out of date guideline + PUBLIC

Before you publish your guideline, it will be referred to as v0.0 in "DRAFT" mode (grey label).

A new published guideline is marked with a blue label containing the version number (e.g. v6.0) and date of publication. After publishing a new version, you can access the new draft copy that you can edit further (e.g. DRAFT v6.0). From the current version you can go straight to your draft by clicking on the "Edit" button next to the blue label of the current version.

Previous guidelines are still accessible in MAGICapp by clicking "View" in publishing history, and are marked with a red "Out of date" label, with a version number (e.g. v3.0) and date of publication.

Any guideline that is public will have a green PUBLIC label next to the publication date.
You and your co-authors and co-admins can access both your draft and your most current published version from the main page.You can access the version history from within the Publishing, version history and subscriptions dialog in guideline settings.

Draft guideline:


Published guideline, available to the public (accessed while logged in, with Edit capacity):


Previously published version of a guideline, not available to the public (accessed while logged in, with Edit capacity):


NOTE: You cannot edit previously published versions - clicking the Edit button on an old version of a guideline will take you the the most recent draft version.

Last Updated: 28 March 2024

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