How to do a technical review

A Technical review consists of reviewing the technical accuracy and completeness of an article and correcting it if necessary. If a writer of an article wants someone else to check the technical content of an article, the writer ticks the "Technical review" checkbox while editing. Often the writer contacts a specific engineer to perform the technical review, but anyone with technical expertise in the topic can do one.

This article describes how to perform a technical review, thereby helping to ensure that MDN's content is accurate.

What is the task?

Reviewing and correcting the articles for technical accuracy and completeness.

Where does it need to be done?

In specific articles that are marked as requiring a technical review.

What do you need to know to do the task?

• Expert knowledge of the topic of the article you are reviewing. If reading the article doesn't teach you anything significantly new, consider yourself an expert.
• How to edit a wiki article on MDN.

What are the steps to do it?

1. Pick an article to review:
   1. Go to the list of pages that need technical reviews. This lists all the pages for which a technical review has been requested.
   2. Choose a page whose topic you are very familiar with.
   3. Click on the article link to load the page.
2. Read the article, paying close attention to technical details: Is the article correct? Is there anything missing? Don't hesitate to switch to a different page if the first one you choose doesn't suit you.
3. If there are no errors, you don't need to edit the article to mark it as reviewed. Look for the "quick review" box in the left sidebar of the page. This yellow box lists any pending reviews and lets you clear their review request flag. It looks like this if a technical review has been requested:
   
4. Deselect the Technical checkbox, and click Save.
5. If you find errors that need to be corrected, you'll be glad to know that you can also change the review request status from within the editor. Here's the workflow:
   1. To edit the page, click the Edit button near the top of the page; this puts you into the MDN editor.
   2. Fix any technical information is not correct, and/or add any important information that is missing.
   3. Enter a Revision Comment at the bottom of the article. This is a brief message that describes what you did, like 'Technical review completed.' If you corrected information, include that in your comment, for example 'Technical review and fixed parameter descriptions.' This helps other contributors and site editors know what you changed and why. You can also mention if there were specific bits that you didn't feel qualfied to review
   4. Deselect the Technical box under Review Needed? just below the Revision Comment area of the page.
   5. Click the PUBLISH button.

Congratulations! You've finished your first technical review! Thank you for your help!