Submission Edit Rules
Understand when authors can and cannot edit their submissions, and how to control editing after acceptance
PaperFox automatically locks and unlocks a submission for editing based on its state in the review workflow. This page explains every rule, plus the two track settings chairs can use to customize behavior after the deadline and after acceptance.
Who Can Edit
| Role | When They Can Edit |
|---|---|
| Submitting author | Whenever the submission is unlocked (see rules below) — this is the person who created the submission |
| Co-authors | Never — only the submitting author has edit access |
| Track chair | Always, regardless of state |
| Conference chair / creator | Always, regardless of state |
Co-authors who need a change must ask the submitting author or a track chair to make it for them.
Edit a Submission as a Chair
Chairs can edit any submission on their track at any time, including after the revision deadline has passed, after a decision, and while reviews are in progress. This is how you help an author who missed the deadline — you fix their paper without reopening editing for everyone who submitted on time.
- Go to Conferences in the sidebar, then click on your conference
- Click on the track, then click "Submissions"
- Click the paper you want to edit
- In the right sidebar under Submission Status, click "Edit Submission"
When the authors themselves cannot edit the paper, an amber note above the button tells you exactly why.
The edit form repeats the warning at the top, naming your role and every rule your edit is stepping over.
Make your changes and click "Save Revision". Three things happen automatically:
- The revision is recorded under your name in the paper's Version History and in the activity log, alongside the specific rules you overrode.
- "Notify all authors about this revision" is checked by default, so the authors receive an email describing what changed. Uncheck it if you'd rather tell them yourself.
- On multi-phase tracks, the phase status badge (on the submission detail card, the submissions list, and the decisions page) shows "Chair Updated" — so your edit is never mistaken for the author's revision or for no update at all. If the author later submits their own revision, the badge switches to "Author Updated".
Editing during active review
Chairs can also edit while reviewers are actively reviewing the paper. The reviewers will see your new version, not the one they started on. Read the amber banner before saving — if it lists "Editing is disabled while the submission is under review", your edit will swap the paper out from under the reviewers.
This is not the same as submitting on behalf of an author
Submit on Behalf creates a new paper for an author. Use it when someone missed the submission deadline and has no paper in the system yet. To fix a paper that already exists, use the chair edit described above — submitting on behalf would create a duplicate with a new submission number and no review history.
When the Submission Is Locked
A submission is locked for authors (but still editable by chairs) in any of these cases:
| Condition | Effect | Recoverable? |
|---|---|---|
| Submission is withdrawn | Locked | Only by restoring from withdrawal |
| Decision: Reject | Locked permanently | No |
| Decision: Desk Reject | Locked permanently | No |
| Decision: Accept (default) | Locked | Yes — chair can enable post-accept editing per track |
| A reviewer has accepted an assignment in the current phase | Locked during active review | Unlocks automatically after a decision (revision or accept with setting on) |
| The deadline has passed and Allow Editing After Deadline is off | Locked | Yes — a chair can edit the paper directly, extend the deadline, or turn the setting back on. The governing deadline is the current phase's revision deadline when one is set, otherwise the track's submission deadline (or late deadline, if configured). By default the setting is on and deadlines never lock editing |
When the Submission Is Editable
A submission is editable by the submitting author when none of the above conditions apply. In practice this means:
- Before the submission deadline — authors can freely edit their submission
- After the submission deadline, before any reviewer accepts an assignment — still editable by default. Deadlines control when new submissions can be created, not when existing ones are frozen — unless the track has Allow Editing After Deadline turned off (see below), in which case editing locks once the governing deadline passes
- After a Major Revision or Minor Revision decision — editing reopens so authors can revise and resubmit. If Allow Editing After Deadline is off, revisions are accepted until the phase's revision deadline; with the default setting on, authors can keep editing even past it (until a reviewer picks the paper up)
- After an Accept decision — only if the track has Allow Editing After Acceptance turned on (see below)
Allow Editing After Deadline (Track Setting)
By default, passing a deadline does not freeze existing papers — deadlines control when new submissions can be created and communicate when revisions are due, so authors can keep polishing what they already submitted (until a reviewer picks the paper up). Turn Allow Editing After Deadline off if your venue wants submissions frozen the moment the deadline passes, so what reviewers see is exactly what was submitted on time.
When the setting is off, editing locks at the deadline that governs the submission's current phase:
- If the current phase has a revision deadline, that is the cutoff — so on multi-phase tracks, each revision phase stays open for edits until its own deadline, even though the original submission deadline is long past.
- Otherwise, the submission deadline is the cutoff. If you've configured a Late Submission Window, editing stays open until that late cutoff instead.
Enable on a Track
- Go to Conferences in the sidebar, then click on your conference
- Click on the track you want to configure
- In the Review Management section, click "Review Settings" to expand the settings
- Find "Allow Editing After Deadline" and toggle it on or off
The setting takes effect immediately for every submission on this track. Chairs are never affected — you can still edit any paper after the deadline (that's how you help an author who has a legitimate reason to change something), and the amber banner on the edit form lists the passed deadline among the rules you're overriding.
When to Turn It Off
Turn this off if your venue treats the submission deadline as a hard freeze:
- Camera-ready-of-record venues — the submitted PDF is the reviewed artifact and must not change during review
- Strict fairness policies — no author gets extra editing time past the posted deadline
- Archival or proceedings deadlines — the version on file at the deadline is the version that ships
If you're comfortable with authors tweaking their papers between the deadline and the start of review, leave it on (the default).
This is separate from Accept Submissions
Allow Editing After Deadline governs editing existing papers; the Accept Submissions toggle and the submission deadline govern creating new ones. You can close new submissions while still allowing edits, or freeze edits while a late window still accepts new papers — the two controls are independent.
Allow Editing After Acceptance (Track Setting)
By default, authors of accepted submissions can keep editing — this is what most venues want, since acceptance is usually followed by a camera-ready or corrections phase. Turn Allow Editing After Acceptance off if your venue treats acceptance as final and you don't want any further changes.
Enable on a Track
- Go to Conferences in the sidebar, then click on your conference
- Click on the track you want to configure
- In the Review Management section, click "Review Settings" to expand the settings
- Find "Allow Editing After Acceptance" and toggle it on or off
The setting takes effect immediately for every submission on this track. Rejections and revision decisions are unaffected — rejections stay locked, revisions stay editable. Only the Accept case is controlled by this toggle.
When to Enable It
Turn this on if your venue has any of these workflows:
- Camera-ready submissions — authors upload the final version after acceptance
- Post-acceptance corrections — authors need to fix typos, update affiliations, or adjust metadata before publication
- Shepherding — a chair or shepherd asks authors to make specific changes after acceptance
If your venue treats acceptance as final, leave it off.
Author list changes after acceptance
When this setting is on, authors can also add or remove co-authors from an accepted submission. Every edit is captured as a new submission version with the full author list snapshot, and a SUBMISSION_REVISE entry is written to the activity log (who revised, what authors were added or removed), so any change is fully auditable. If you need author-list changes to go through chair approval instead, turn the setting off and make the edits yourself as a track chair — you can always edit any submission regardless of this toggle.
Quick Reference: Decision Types
| Decision | Editable by Author? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| No decision yet | Yes (until a reviewer accepts) | The "reviewer accepted" trigger locks the submission mid-review |
| Major Revision | Yes | Past the phase's revision deadline only while Allow Editing After Deadline is on (the default) |
| Minor Revision | Yes | Past the phase's revision deadline only while Allow Editing After Deadline is on (the default) |
| Accept | Only with setting on | Controlled by Allow Editing After Acceptance |
| Reject | No | Permanent lock |
| Desk Reject | No | Permanent lock |
Default Behavior
Both editing toggles default to on for every new track, so PaperFox's out-of-the-box behavior is the most permissive: authors can keep editing after the deadline and after acceptance.
- Allow Editing After Deadline — on by default. Passing a deadline (submission or phase revision) does not freeze existing papers; most venues let authors keep editing until review begins. Turn it off per track to freeze submissions once the governing deadline passes.
- Allow Editing After Acceptance — on by default. This matches the workflow of most academic venues, which run a camera-ready or corrections phase after acceptance. Turn it off per track if your venue treats acceptance as final.
Turning either off only ever restricts authors — chairs can still edit any submission on their track at any time.