Information for OPL Editors

The OPL Editors oversee inclusion of new problems to the Open Problem Library (OPL). When problems are contributed, they are put in the Contrib directory of the Open Problem Library. It then falls to the editorial board to review problems and decide if some/all of them should be copied into the OPL. Each editor is responsible for a particular portion of the OPL.

Structure of the OPL github repository

There are three parts of the github OPL repository:

1. Contrib -- contains submissions to the OPL. Problems here are available to everyone who downloads the OPL through github, and modifications are at the sole discretion of the contributor. By default, all problems are considered for being added to the OPL.
2. Pending -- this area is for OPL editors and holds problems from Contrib currently under consideration.
3. OpenProblemLibrary -- this is the OPL, and is the part which is indexed for WeBWorK's Library Browser.

Processing problems

When problems are submitted to the OPL through, they are copied to the Pending area of the OPL github repository.

When new problems appear, the appropriate editor should take the following steps.

1. Look at each problem in rendered form. If there are any obvious problems (e.g., it does not render, or it references a particular textbook page), then it is rejected.
2. Decide where the problem belongs in the OPL Taxonomy. If the problem has tags, it can help point you in the right direction, but the final decision is up to the editor.
3. Compare the problem to existing problems in that Subject/Chapter/Section:
   • If the problem is essentially a duplicate of an existing problem, consider if one version is clearly better than the other.
     • If the existing problem is just as good, keep it and reject the new problem.
     • If the new one is better, mark it as accepted and send a "keep-kill" note to the Editor in chief so that the new problem is kept and the old problem redirects to the new one.
   • If the problem is not a duplicate,
     • Mark it as accepted.
     • If necessary, set the Subject/Chapter/Section and level tags.
     • See if it belongs in a more-like-this group with existing problems. If so, tag it as such.

When done, send an e-mail to the Editor in chief saying that some problems have been processed. Problems marked as rejected are removed from Pending and noted so that they will not appear there again (unless the contributor says significant changes have been made so that it should be considered again). Problems marked as accepted are copied into the OPL.