# Review and approve topics

**Category:** [CCMS](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/categories/ccms)
**Updated:** 2026-08-19

## The status workflow

Each topic moves through a defined lifecycle: **Draft** → **In review** → **Approved** → **Published**, with **Archived** available for retired content. This keeps unfinished or unapproved content out of your publications.
## Submit a topic for review

In the topic editor, choose **Submit for review**. Pick a **reviewer** — this can be a TotalCtrl user on your team or an external **portal member** if you use the CCMS reviewer portal. You can add a short note giving the reviewer context. Submitting moves the topic to **In review** and creates a review assignment. Any previous pending review on that topic is cancelled automatically.
## Reviewing

The assigned reviewer opens the topic and chooses **Approve** or **Reject**. Approving advances the topic to **Approved**; rejecting sends it back so the author can revise. You can also change a topic's status directly from the editor when you have the right access.
## Publishing the topic

Only **Published** topics are available to add to a publication's map. Once a topic is approved and you set it to Published, it becomes selectable when you [build a publication](build-and-publish). Topic status is independent from building the publication output, so you control exactly which content ships.

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## Related Articles

- [Build and publish a publication](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/build-and-publish)
- [Translate topics](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/translate-topics)
- [Reuse content with snippets and variables](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/snippets-and-variables)
- [CCMS overview](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/ccms-overview)
- [How the CCMS to String Manager sync works](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/ccms-strings-sync-overview)

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