About the RFC Editor

The RFC Editor is made up of several different groups who work together to edit, publish, and archive RFCs.

The current RFC Editor operating structure is defined in RFC 9920 and comprises the following groups.

RSWG ¶

The RFC Series Working Group (RSWG) generates policy proposals regarding the publication of RFCs. It is an open working group, and all interested parties are welcome to participate in policy development.

RSAB ¶

The RFC Series Approval Board (RSAB) approves proposals generated by the RSWG. It provides "checks and balances" for the output of the RSWG and considers the long-term health of each stream and the RFC Series. The RSAB includes the following:

• representatives from each stream
• the RFC Series Consulting Editor (RSCE)
• the IETF LLC Director (ex officio)
• an RPC representative (ex officio)

RSCE ¶

The RFC Series Consulting Editor (RSCE) is a senior technical publishing professional who provides expert advice to the RFC Production Center (RPC) and RSAB on how to implement established policies on an ongoing and operational basis. This includes raising support or concerns for proposed policy updates and initiating proposed policy changes within the RSWG.

RPC ¶

The RFC Production Center (RPC) is a team of professional editors that prepares and publishes RFCs. Once Internet-Drafts are approved by the various streams, the editors format and edit the documents, and then they work with the authors to produce publication-ready RFCs per defined policies and guidelines.

Governing RFCs ¶

The RFC Editor function is currently defined and governed by the following RFCs:

• RFC 2026: Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process — Revision 3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996.
• RFC 4846: Klensin, J., Ed., and D. Thaler, Ed., "Independent Submissions to the RFC Editor", RFC 4846, July 2007.
• RFC 6410: Housley, R., Crocker, D., and E. Burger, "Reducing the Standards Track to Two Maturity Levels", BCP 9, RFC 6410, October 2011.
• RFC 8711: Haberman, B., Hall, J., and J. Livingood, "Structure of the IETF Administrative Support Activity, Version 2.0", BCP 101, RFC 8711, February 2020.
• RFC 8729: Housley, R., Ed., and L. Daigle, Ed., "The RFC Series and RFC Editor", RFC 8729, February 2020.
• RFC 8730: Brownlee, N., Ed., and B. Hinden, Ed., "Independent Submission Editor Model", RFC 8730, February 2020.
• RFC 9281: Salz, R., "Entities Involved in the IETF Standards Process", BCP 11, RFC 9281, June 2022.
• RFC 9282: Rosen, B., "Responsibility Change for the RFC Series", RFC 9282, June 2022.
• RFC 9283: Carpenter, B., Ed., "IAB Charter Update for RFC Editor Model", BCP 39, RFC 9283, June 2022.
• RFC 9920: Hoffman, P. and A. Rossi, "RFC Editor Model (Version 3)", RFC 9920, February 2026.

The following RFCs define particular RFC contents:

• RFC 2277 (Internationalization Considerations): Alvestrand, H., "IETF Policy on Character Sets and Languages", BCP 18, RFC 2277, January 1998.
• RFC 3552 (Security Considerations): Rescorla, E. and B. Korver, "Guidelines for Writing RFC Text on Security Considerations", BCP 72, RFC 3552, July 2003.
• RFC 7322: Flanagan, H. and S. Ginoza, "RFC Style Guide", RFC 7322, September 2014.
• RFC 7841 (Headers and Boilerplate): Halpern, J., Ed., Daigle, L., Ed., and O. Kolkman, Ed., "RFC Streams, Headers, and Boilerplates", RFC 7841, May 2016.
• RFC 8126 (IANA Considerations): Cotton, M., Leiba, B., and T. Narten, "Guidelines for Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 8126, June 2017.
• RFC 8996 (Updates RFC 3552): Moriarty, K. and S. Farrell, "Deprecating TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1", BCP 195, RFC 8996, March 2021.
• RFC 9920 (Headers and Boilerplate for Editorial Stream): Hoffman, P. and A. Rossi, "RFC Editor Model (Version 3)", RFC 9920, February 2026.

The following RFCs govern intellectual property issues related to RFCs:

• RFC 5378: Bradner, S., Ed., and J. Contreras, Ed., "Rights Contributors Provide to the IETF Trust", BCP 78, RFC 5378, November 2008.
• RFC 5743: Falk, A., "Definition of an Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) Document Stream", RFC 5743, December 2009.
• RFC 5744: Braden, R. and J. Halpern, "Procedures for Rights Handling in the RFC Independent Submission Stream", RFC 5744, December 2009.
• RFC 5745: Malis, A., Ed., and IAB, "Procedures for Rights Handling in the RFC IAB Stream", RFC 5745, December 2009.
• RFC 8179: Bradner, S. and J. Contreras, "Intellectual Property Rights in IETF Technology", BCP 79, RFC 8179, May 2017.
• RFC 9920 (Editorial Stream): Hoffman, P. and A. Rossi, "RFC Editor Model (Version 3)", RFC 9920, February 2026.

In addition to RFC 8126, the following RFCs govern RFC Editor actions with respect to particular IANA registrations:

• RFC 4289: Freed, N. and J. Klensin, "Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Four: Registration Procedures", BCP 13, RFC 4289, December 2005.
• RFC 6838: Freed, N., Klensin, J., and T. Hansen, "Media Type Specifications and Registration Procedures", BCP 13, RFC 6838, January 2013.
• RFC 7595: Thaler, D., Ed., Hansen, T., and T. Hardie, "Guidelines and Registration Procedures for URI Schemes", BCP 35, RFC 7595, June 2015.
• RFC 8141: Saint-Andre, P. and J. Klensin, "Uniform Resource Names (URNs)", RFC 8141, April 2017.