Using Peerpedia

Find and read a paper

You can read every public paper and its discussions without signing in. On Browse, search for a title, an author, or words from the text. Sort by the latest accepted update or by average reader rating.

Use Subject to narrow your search. Subjects follow arXiv’s categories. A paper can appear in several subjects when its authors choose more than one.

While reading, choose the Peerpedia icon to return home. Your browser’s Back button returns to the page you came from.

For a course with chapters, mark a chapter complete when you finish it. Your progress follows your account if you sign in. Otherwise, it stays in that browser. If a completed chapter changes, an Updated mark lets you know.

Publish your first note

A note begins as a draft, a private document you can keep editing. Publishing makes a copy available for everyone to read. Peerpedia uses the same process for short notes, courses, and research papers.

1. Create an account. Sign up and verify your email before publishing.
2. Choose New note. Write on the left and read the preview on the right. The editor uses Markdown, plain text with a few marks for headings, equations, and other formatting. The writing guide starts with a small example you can copy.
3. Fill in Paper details. Add a title, an abstract, author names in publication order, and a primary subject. Put each author on a separate line. Use Cross-list subjects for other relevant subjects.
4. Choose Review & publish. Read the preview and check the details. Choose a license and confirm that you have permission to publish the work.
5. Choose Publish initial submission. Your note is now public. You become its corresponding author, the account responsible for accepting or rejecting future edits.

Pause and come back

The checklist above the editor shows what still needs attention. Choose an item to jump to its field. If you try to review an incomplete draft, a popup lists the problems and the fields turn red. Correct them and choose Review again. For a PR, What changed? explains your edits to the author. For example, “Correct the sign in Equation 2 and add the missing assumption to its proof.”

Drafts save automatically. Wait for Saved before closing the page, then return through My drafts. Use Split view to write and preview together, or Edit and Preview to give either pane more room.

To remove a draft, choose Discard draft in the editor toolbar and confirm. This removes the private draft. Published papers and submitted snapshots remain in their history.

Start from a file

In the editor, open Files and choose Import Markdown to load a .md file. You can edit it, preview it, and submit it from the same draft. PDF and image uploads are not supported.

Choose a license

A license tells other people how they may reuse your work. Read the license choices before publishing. The paper keeps that license for later revisions. Contributors must have permission to submit their changes under it.

Check before publishing. A confirmed submission preserves its text and details in the public history. Corrections become new versions. Check claims, references, and attribution yourself, including when AI helped write the note.

Organize a longer work

Chapters divide one paper into separate reading pages. For example, a course might have Introduction, Examples, and Exercises. They share a title, author list, license, and overall rating.

Choose Add chapter in the editor’s left sidebar. Select a chapter to edit it. Use the pencil to rename it and the up and down arrows to change its order. One proposed edit can change several chapters together.

The writing guide explains how to link to another chapter, a numbered equation, or another Peerpedia paper. It also covers a shared bibliography for the whole work.

For mathematical drawings, see the diagram examples. You can write commutative diagrams and TikZ drawings directly in Markdown.

Suggest an improvement

A pull request, or PR, is a proposed edit. It lets people read and discuss a change before it replaces the published text. Any verified user can propose one, without an invitation. You use this process to revise your own paper too.

1. Open the paper in the reader. Choose the pencil beside a section heading to edit that section and its subsections. Use the reader’s main Edit control to work on the whole paper.
2. Make your changes in the private draft. Describe what you changed in Paper details, or Change description for a section draft.
3. Choose Review & submit PR. Check the preview and the comparison showing added and removed text. Confirm your submission rights, then choose Submit PR.
4. Discuss the proposal. The PR is public. Only the corresponding author can accept or reject it. You can withdraw your own pending PR.

Improve the same PR

Choose Update PR in the PR conversation to continue editing it. After reviewing your changes, choose Submit PR update. Each submission saves a snapshot, a fixed copy of the complete paper at that point. Earlier snapshots remain available. Acceptance applies to the newest one.

Once accepted, your changes appear in the current paper and your contribution appears in its history. Contributing does not automatically add your name to the author list.

If the paper changes while you work

The editor warns you when a newer version has been accepted. Follow Compare and update your base to compare it with the version your draft started from. Keep the changes you need from both copies, then review your proposal again. For a section draft, unrelated changes elsewhere can be carried forward automatically when your section is unchanged.

Review a paper

Open the paper’s title, then its Reviews tab. Choose one to five stars and write your assessment. Both are required. You can update your review later, and authors may review their own work.

The overall rating is the average of visible reviews. A review applies to the paper as a whole, even after it is revised. Use a passage discussion when your feedback concerns one sentence, equation, or proof.

Discuss a passage

A passage discussion stays beside the text it concerns. Select one or more sentences in the reader, then choose Comment & rate. For an equation, table, or code block, use its plus button. The small counts in the margin open existing discussions.

Starting a discussion requires a written comment and a rating. This rating concerns that passage only and is separate from the overall paper rating. Replies need only text. You can reply to replies, and use thumbs up or down to vote on comments.

Open the three-dot menu beside your comment to edit it. Earlier edits remain in History. The menu also offers reporting and links to proposed fixes. Only the person who started a discussion can mark it resolved or reopen it. Accepting a linked PR does not resolve the discussion automatically.

Use Discussions in the reader to find conversations throughout the paper. A discussion can follow unchanged text into a new version. When its passage changes, the earlier discussion remains linked to the old text, and its rating is not applied to the replacement.

Comments on a PR discuss that proposal as a whole. They appear in a chronological conversation, separate from the nested passage discussions.

Comments and ratings are written by people on the website. AI tools can read them and help prepare a proposed fix, but cannot post comments, vote, rate, or resolve discussions.

Read earlier versions

A published paper has a permanent number such as 261025.a7c92e4b10d3. The first six digits mean 25 October 2026, its first publication date in UTC. The rest comes from its first snapshot’s hash. This number appears in the paper’s address and stays the same after revisions.

On a paper’s details page, History lists accepted versions. Open one to read or download it, or compare two versions. Submissions also includes proposals that are pending, rejected, or withdrawn.

Each submitted snapshot has its own label, such as 261103.8b7e219c4a63. Its date is when it was submitted, in UTC. Acceptance does not change that label. The reader shows whether the snapshot is pending, accepted, or superseded. Use the link icon beside the paper details in the reader to copy a citation of that exact snapshot, or copy the paper link to share the latest accepted text.

Each snapshot has a hash, a long code that can be used to check that its saved contents have not changed. Accepting or rejecting it does not alter those contents. Reviews and discussions are stored separately.

For a reference to an exact statement, use the link icon beside it in the reader. The reference window offers links to the fixed version. The writing guide explains how to insert these references into a note.

Administrators can hide inappropriate material. For a copyright, privacy, or withdrawal concern, use the private rights request form.

Follow the conversation

The bell in the navigation opens your inbox. It collects replies, reviews, proposed edits, and decisions related to your work and conversations.

Open an update to visit the discussion or paper and mark it read. Choose Unread to catch up, or Mark all read to clear the list. These notifications stay on the website. They are not sent by email.

Your account

You can create an account with a username and password or choose Continue with Google. Your username is public and your email address is private. Verify your email and accept the submission and discussion agreement before contributing.

If you already have an account with the same email as your Google account, sign in with your password first. Open Account to connect Google.

If a verification email does not arrive, check your spam folder and request another. Verification links expire after 24 hours. Use Forgot password? to recover access.

When something goes wrong

The editor has not saved my work

Keep the tab open. Use Files to download your text before reloading. If you worked on the same draft in two tabs, compare the copies before choosing which one to keep. For a paper with chapters, choose Download all files.

A formula, reference, or diagram looks wrong

Check the examples in the writing guide. Keep the preview open while making a small correction. Correct any formula or diagram errors and missing or duplicate reference labels before submitting. Incomplete drafts can still be saved.

I need to report a problem

Report a bug on GitHub with the page address, what you did, and what happened. A screenshot can help. Leave out passwords, access tokens, and private information. Contact details are on the About page.

Prefer to work in a local editor or with an AI assistant? The separate CLI guide covers installation, reading feedback, and submitting local files.