<sect2id="copyright"><title>Copyright and License</title>
<para>This document is copyright 2001 by David C. Merrill, Ph.D., and is released under the
terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Send feedback to
<ulinkurl="mailto:david@lupercalia.net"><citetitle>david@lupercalia.net</citetitle></ulink>, or <ulinkurl="mailto:discuss@en.tldp.org"><citetitle>discuss@en.tldp.org</citetitle></ulink>.
<para>Alternatively, if you've obtained the file from the Review Coordinator, or are unfamiliar with CVS, you can return the changes to the coordinator for further handling.</para>
</footnote>
and make any necessary changes. If changes are
extensive or if the document has glaringly and fundamentally fatal errors, contact a
coordinator to let him or her know what the problems are. Once changes are made, the reviewer will update the minor
version number, submit the changes to the CVS, and send the original
<sect2id="newversion"><title>Working With the Latest Version</title>
<para>Make sure the copy you are reviewing is the most current.</para>
<para>If your document includes a URL to an official homepage, visit that page and see if it
displays the same version number. If you find the same version number, you are fine. If you
find a newer version number, write to the author and ask him or her to please submit the newer
version to you.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2id="pickatype"><title>Picking a Review to Conduct</title>
<para>There are many different ways a document can be reviewed, and you may have the skills
to do only one or two types of reviews. It is sometimes useful (and easier) to do each review as a
separate pass through the document; Your Mileage May Vary.</para>
<para>The following sections explain the various types of reviews we are conducting. Use these sections as a guide to help you choose
the type of review to conduct and to help you conduct the review itself. Again, when you post your review
choice to the review list, please specify the type of review you would like to be responsible for.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1id="peerreview"><title>Peer Review</title>
<para>When an author submits a new document to the LDP, someone monitoring the submission email list will advise the author to post his draft to the discussion list for an initial peer review, prior to publication. Besides determining whether the document thoroughly covers the subject matter, peers may also point out similar work already in the document collection, in which case the new author might want to contact the maintainer of the existing work.</para>
<para>As a member of the review team, you will recognize a peer review document as one the author has submitted to the discussion list, specifically requesting feedback for inclusion of their HOWTO in the collection. This review can be performed by anyone subscribed to the discussion list (<ulinkurl="www.tldp.org/mailinfo.html#maillists"/>).</para>
<para>The same should apply for the prerequisite knowledge of the reader. If prior knowledge of a subject is assumed or required, the author should say so somewhere at the beginning of the document, and it's helpful to ask that authors provide a Resource section for further reading, to bring readers that much closer to the required information.</para>
<para>The LDP uses a series of scripts to transform documents into their published format. In order for these scripts to work, documents must use valid markup and include specific metadata. Metadata is information about the document and includes author information, copyright, license and a revision history of the document.</para>
<para>Authors are not required to submit their initial document in one of the required markup languages. A volunteer will be assigned to convert any document which is not submitted in valid markup. Authors must maintain their documents in one of the required formats. Help, of course, is available to authors. The main goal of The Linux Documentation Project is to provide quality documents, not to force authors to learn markup languages.</para>
<listitem><formalpara><title><sgmltag>articleinfo</sgmltag> or <sgmltag>bookinfo</sgmltag></title>
<para>If you are writing a shorter HOWTO (this will be most documents) you will need to use an <sgmltag>articleinfo</sgmltag>, if you are writing a longer guide you will need to use <sgmltag>bookinfo</sgmltag>.</para></formalpara>
<para>Every document must contain a short, descriptive title. It should be reasonably unique; check other documents in the collection to make sure your document's title is distinctive from all other documents. Although it is not required, most <quote>HOWTO</quote> documents contain the word <quote>HOWTO</quote> in the title.</para></formalpara>
<para>A short description of your document must be included in the <sgmltag>abstract</sgmltag>. This description is typically one or two sentences in length.
<para>Every document must have an author. If there are multiple authors, you may use <sgmltag>authorgroup</sgmltag>. If the document was prepared by an organization with no individual author, please use <sgmltag>authorcorp</sgmltag> instead.</para></formalpara>
<para>Authors will always retain the copyright to any documents they submit to the LDP. Although it is not required, a copyright notice may be included. A license, however, is always required.</para></formalpara>
<para>A summary of revisions should be included in the document. For more information about their markup, please read the notes in the <citetitle>Author Guide</citetitle>'s <ulinkurl="http://tldp.org/LDP/LDP-Author-Guide/html/metadata-markup.html">Markup for Metadata</ulink>.</para></formalpara>
<para>The initial release of a document should be marked up as Version 1.0. Subsequent updates should increment the version number appropriately. The preferred format is Major.Minor.Bugfix, where each section is an integer.
<listitem><formalpara><title>License and Legal Notice</title>
<para>A license is required. The LDP currently accepts documents which are licensed under the GFDL, Creative Commons License and the LDP License. If you are using a license that is not listed it will need to be reviewed by our volunteers before the document is accepted. The full text of the license is required. A link is not sufficient. You may wish to include a disclaimer as part of the legal notice. A standard disclaimer is available from the <citetitle>Author Guide</citetitle>.</para></formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<formalpara><title>email</title>
<para>The LDP must be able to reach any author of any document via email. Email addresses should be included in the <sgmltag>author</sgmltag> tag, but may be included in the DocBook source as a comment. Documents without email address will not be accepted into the collection. If the LDP is unable to reach an author, the document may be removed from the collection.</para></formalpara>
</listitem>
<listitem><formalpara><title>Acknowledgements and Other Credits</title>
<para>Very few, if any, documents are written only by one person. It is good form to thank those who helped you with either the writing, research, testing or reviewing of your document. If someone added markup, or translated your document to another language they should also be given credit.</para></formalpara>