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Publication rules for Candidate Recommendation Draft (“CRD”)

1. Normative Document Representation

  • § At least one normative representation must be available for requests that use the "This Version" URI. More than one normative representation may be delivered in response to such requests. A "This Version" URI must not be used to identify a non-normative representation.
  • § recursive All normative representations must validate as HTML5 with the following limitations:
    • Inline markup for MathML is permitted but should use a (fallback) alternative.
    • If the HTML5 validator issues content warnings, the publication request must include rationale why the warning is not problematic.
  • § Visual styles should not vary significantly among normative alternatives.

2. Document Metadata

  • § recursive Each document must include the following absolute URI to identify a style sheet for this maturity level: https://www.w3.org/StyleSheets/TR/2021/W3C-CRD

    Include this source code:
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://www.w3.org/StyleSheets/TR/2021/W3C-CRD"/>

  • § recursive Any internal style sheets must be cascaded before this link; i.e., the internal style sheets must not override the W3C tech report styles.
  • § recursive The viewport meta tag is required.

    Include this source code:
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no">

  • § recursive The canonical link is required.

    Include this source code:
    <link rel="canonical" href="@@URL@@">

3. Front Matter

  • § The front matter must appear at the beginning of the body of the document, within <div class="head">. There is one exception to that requirement: the hr element after the copyright may appear inside or after the div element. Editors should not include other information in this section.
  • § The document's title must be in the title element and in an h1 element. When calculating text equation, special transformations made to h1 are:
    1. Replace ':<br>' with ': '
    2. Replace '<br>' with ' - '
    3. Extract text from h1, and ignore HTML tags.
  • § Technical report version information, i.e., version and edition numbers.
    1. See the (non-normative) Version Management in W3C Technical Reports for more information.
  • § The document's status and date must be in a <p id="w3c-state"> element as follows (see also date syntax): 
    <p id="w3c-state">W3C Candidate Recommendation Draft DD Month YYYY</p>
  • § Document identifier information must be presented in a dl list, where each dt element marks up an identifier role ("This Version", "Latest Version", "History", etc.) and each dd element includes a link whose link text is the identifier. That dl must itself be placed in a details element.

    Include this source code:
    <details open><summary>More details about this document</summary><dl>...</dl></details>

  • § Document identifier information must be present in this order:
    • 'This version' - URI to that version
    • 'Latest version' - URI to the latest version. See also the (non-normative) Version Management in W3C Technical Reports for information about "latest version" URI and version management.
    • 'History' - URI to the history of the specification
    • Editor(s)
    • Feedback - GitHub repository issue links are required in the <dl>after <dt>Feedback:</dt> in the headers (<div class="head">) of the document. Links are expected to be of the form https://github.com/<USER_OR_ORG>/<REPO_NAME>/[issues|labels][/…].)
  • § The syntax of a “this version” URI must be https://www.w3.org/TR/YYYY/CRD-shortname-YYYYMMDD/. If the document introduces a new shortname, it must use lowercase letters.
  • § The title page date and the date at the end of the "This Version" URI must match.
  • § The syntax of a “latest version” URI must be https://www.w3.org/TR/shortname/.
  • § The syntax of a “history” URI must be https://www.w3.org/standards/history/shortname/, and consistent with the shortname mentioned in 'Latest Version'. Note: If there's a shortname change it must be specified using the following data attribute data-previous-shortname='previous-shortname' on the <a> element.
  • § The editors'/authors' names must be listed, including one of the following attributes (listed in descending order of precedence):
    • data-editor-id="@@" (referencing W3C ID)
    • data-editor-github="@@" (referencing GitHub username)
    Affiliations and email addresses are optional; email addresses are not recommended. The affiliation of Invited Experts must always be "W3C Invited Expert" whether they are affiliated with another organization or not. If an editor/author is acknowledged in an earlier version of this document and the individual's affiliation has since changed, list the individual using the notation "<name>, <affiliation> (until DD Month YYYY)". If the list of authors is very long (e.g., the entire Working Group), identify the authors in the acknowledgments section, linked from the head of the document. Distinguish any contributors from authors in the acknowledgments section.
    Note: Editors must be participating in the group producing the document at the time of its publication. If an editor left the group before publication, they can still be listed but the rationale must be provided in a <span class="former"> element next to the name of the editor.
  • § Authors may provide links to alternative (non-normative) representations or packages for the document. For instance:

    <p>This document is also available in these non-normative formats: <a href="CRD-shortname-20180101.html">single HTML file</a>, <a href="CRD-shortname-20180101.tgz">gzipped tar file of HTML</a>.</p>

  • § It must include a link to a preliminary interoperability or implementation report, or a statement that no such report exists.
  • § A horizontal rule (hr) must follow the copyright.

5. Document Status Section

  • § There must be a status section that follows the abstract, labeled with an h2 element with content "Status of This Document". The Team maintains the status section of a document.
  • § It must begin with the following boilerplate text:

    This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C standards and drafts index.

    Include this source code:
    <p><em>This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/">W3C standards and drafts index</a>.</em></p>
  • § All dates must have one of the following forms:
    1. DD Month YYYY : 09 January 2020
    2. DD-Month-YYYY : 09-January-2020
    3. DD Mon YYYY : 09 Jan 2020
    4. DD-Mon-YYYY : 09-Jan-2020
    A leading zero in the day is optional.
  • § It must include the name of the W3C group that produced the document, the type of document and its track. The name must be a link to a public page for the group.

    This document was published by the @@@ Working/Interest Group as a Candidate Recommendation Draft using the Recommendation track.

    Include this source code:
    <p>This document was published by the <a href="https://www.w3.org/groups/(wg|ig)/@@/">@@@ Working/Interest Group</a> as a Candidate Recommendation Draft using the <a href="https://www.w3.org/policies/process/20250818/#recs-and-notes">Recommendation track</a>.</p>
  • § It must include a minimal duration (before which the group will not request the next transition). The duration must be expressed as an estimated date.
  • § It should include an estimated date by which time the Working Group expects to have sufficient implementation experience.
  • § It must identify any "features at risk" declared by the Working Group (as defined in section 6.4 of the W3C Process Document).
  • § It must include at least one customized paragraph. This section should include the title page date (i.e., the one next to the maturity level at the top of the document). These paragraphs should explain the publication context, including rationale and relationships to other work. See examples and more discussion in the Manual of Style.
  • § It must include a link to changes since the previous draft (e.g., a list of changes or a diff document or both; see the online HTML diff tool).
  • § It must set expectations about the (in)stability of the document. The recommended text is:

    Publication as a Candidate Recommendation does not imply endorsement by W3C and its Members. A Candidate Recommendation Draft integrates changes from the previous Candidate Recommendation that the Working Group intends to include in a subsequent Candidate Recommendation Snapshot.

    Include this source code:
    <p>Publication as a Candidate Recommendation does not imply endorsement by W3C and its Members. A Candidate Recommendation Draft integrates changes from the previous Candidate Recommendation that the Working Group intends to include in a subsequent Candidate Recommendation Snapshot.</p>
  • § W3C Candidate Recommendation Draft must include one of the following two paragraphs in the "Status Of This Document":
    This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than a work in progress.
    This document is maintained and updated at any time. Some parts of this document are work in progress.
  • § It must include a text related to the patent policy:
    • if the document is under REC track, the text is:

      This document was produced by a group operating under the W3C Patent Policy. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent that the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.

      Include this source code:
      <p>This document was produced by a group operating under the <a href="https://www.w3.org/policies/patent-policy/">W3C Patent Policy</a>. W3C maintains a <a rel="disclosure" href="@@URI to IPP status or other page@@">public list of any patent disclosures</a> made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent that the individual believes contains <a href="https://www.w3.org/policies/patent-policy/#def-essential">Essential Claim(s)</a> must disclose the information in accordance with <a href="https://www.w3.org/policies/patent-policy/#sec-Disclosure">section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy</a>.</p>
    • if the document is under Note track or Registry track, it must set the licensing requirements related to the Patent Policy. The text is:

      The W3C Patent Policy does not carry any licensing requirements or commitments on this document.

      Include this source code:
      <p>The <a href="https://www.w3.org/policies/patent-policy/">W3C Patent Policy</a> does not carry any licensing requirements or commitments on this document.</p>

  • § If it is the intention to incorporate new features in future updates of the specification, please make sure to identify the document as intending to allow new features. Recommended text is:
    Future updates to this upcoming Recommendation may incorporate new features.
    Include one of this source code:
    <p>Future updates to this upcoming Recommendation may incorporate <a href="https://www.w3.org/policies/process/20250818/#allow-new-features">new features</a>.</p>
  • § It must not indicate the number of known disclosures at the time of publication.
  • § The document must include the following boilerplate text in the status section to identify the governing process:

    This document is governed by the 18 August 2023 W3C Process Document.

    Include this source code:
    <p>This document is governed by the <a id="w3c_process_revision" href="https://www.w3.org/policies/process/20250818/">18 August 2023 W3C Process Document</a>. </p>
  • § There should be a table of contents after the status section, labeled with an h2 element with content "Table of Contents".
  • § The table of content must be inside a navigation element (nav).

    Include this source code:
    <nav id="toc"><h2>Table of Contents</h2>

7. Document Body

  • § recursive Every marked-up section and subsection of the document must have a target anchor. A section is identified by a heading element (h1-h6). The anchor may be specified using an id (or name if an a element is used) attribute on any of the following: the heading element itself, the parent div or section element of the heading element (where the heading element is the first child of the div or section), a descendant of the heading element, or an a immediately preceding the heading element.
  • § recursive The document must not have any style sheet errors.
  • § recursive All proposed XML namespaces created by the publication of the document must follow URIs for W3C Namespaces .
  • § The document(s) must conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2, Level AA. Note: You may wish to consult the customizable quick reference to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2.
  • § The document must include the script fixup.js.

    Include this source code:
    <script src="//www.w3.org/scripts/TR/2021/fixup.js" type="application/javascript"></script>

  • § The document should have a security and privacy considerations section.

8. Compound Documents

  • § If the document is compound (i.e., if it consists of more than one file), all the files must be under a directory /TR/YYYY/CRD-shortname-YYYYMMDD/. Exceptions are resources under these paths:
    1. https://www.w3.org/StyleSheets/
    2. https://www.w3.org/scripts/
  • § The main page should be called Overview.html.
  • § All other files must be reachable by links from the document.