The Regulations are adopted by the Ministry of Education (hereinafter referred to as the Ministry) to govern the approval of senior high school textbooks in accordance with Article 9 of the Senior High School Act.

The term "textbooks" as mentioned in the Regulations refers to student textbooks and practice annexed thereto as compiled in accordance with senior high school curriculum guidelines (hereinafter referred to as the "curriculum guidelines ").
In accordance with the regulations, the scope, name, and number of textbooks to be compiled for each subject shall be promulgated by the Ministry.

The term "approving agency" as mentioned in the Regulations refers to the Ministry. The Ministry may, whenever necessary, delegate the handling of approval matters to the National Academy for Educational Research.
The term "applicant" as mentioned in the Regulations refers to a legally registered company operating book publishing business.

When applying for approval for textbooks in the same subject, the applicant may, by sequential volume number thereof, apply for the approval individually or simultaneously.
When applying for approval for two or more versions of textbooks in the same subject, version contents must differ by at least one half or more.
Textbooks submitted for approval according to the first paragraph or those amended according to curriculum guidelines and re-submitted for approval, shall be handled according to procedures and timelines as announced by the Ministry.

When applying for approval, an applicant shall complete the application form for textbook approval, together with the following documents:
1. 10 to 16 copies of the textbook compilation plan.
2. 10 to 16 copies of the draft textbook and teacher's manual, respectively.

A draft textbook submitted by an applicant under Article 5, subparagraph 2 shall comply with the following provisions:
1. Applying for approval by subject.
2. Submitted by volume as a unit and bound with the final typescript and artwork; all illustrations shall be final; no black and white illustrations can be substituted for color illustrations.
3. The style and specifications/dimensions of a draft textbook shall be identical to the finished version. Font size of body text shall not be smaller than 11-point (level 16) computer typesetting.
4. Plain paper shall be used for the cover with the name of the book and the volume number printed thereon, and may not bear any other text or symbols. The names of the applicant or the compiler may not appear in the body text, nor their places of employment.
5. Any translated terminology, such as names of people or places, scientific terminology, or proper nouns, shall conform to the standard terms of Chinese translation, if any, promulgated by the Ministry or the National Academy for Educational Research.
6. Units of weights and measures shall follow the standard system promulgated by the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection, Ministry of Economic Affairs.

The approving agency shall form an approval committee for each subject to approve textbooks in accordance to the curriculum guidelines promulgated by the Ministry.

The approving agency shall, within 90 days after receiving the application, notify the applicant of the review decision. Depending on the quantity and content of drafts under application for approval, the approving agency may extend, for one time only, the review period by 30 days, and notify the extension to the applicant.
Review decision under the preceding paragraph shall be one of the following: "Approved," "To be Revised as Instructed," and "To be Recompiled."
The review period of each volume of the same subject shall commence from the date of notification for the review decision for the preceding volume.

When the review decision for an application on textbook approval is "To be Revised as Instructed", the applicant, after making revisions in accordance with the review comments, shall submit the draft, revised as instructed, with an application for a follow-up review within a certain time limit, commencing from the date of receiving the review decision notice, and the approving agency shall give notice of its follow-up review decision within a certain time limit from the date it receives the revised draft.
Applications for follow-up reviews under the preceding paragraph shall be limited to three instances. The "certain time limit" to submit an application for follow-up review, and for the agency to make its follow-up review decision and notify the applicant thereof, shall be 45 days in the first instance,and 30 days in the second and third instances. If the result of its third follow-up review is not "Approved," the third follow-up review decision shall be "To be Recompiled.”
In the revised draft submitted with an application for follow-up review under paragraph 1, no change may be made to the content except for revisions in accordance with the review comments, updating of data, correction of typographical errors, and wording revisions. If there is any revision made beyond this scope, the approving agency may decline the acceptance of the application.

Regarding the time limits specified in paragraph 2 of the preceding article for each instance of a follow-up review application, the applicant may, three days before the expiration of the time limit, apply in writing to the approving agency for a 30-day extension; only one extension may be granted in each instance. If a submission exceeds the time limit, the approving agency shall reject it, and the applicant shall be required to file a new application for approval, and shall in this case be exempted from the time limits for approval application set forth in Article 4, paragraph 3.

When the review decision for a textbook approval application is "To be Recompiled", the applicant may, within 30 days from the date it receives the review decision notice, appeal to the approving agency with a written request for reconsideration. The approving agency shall consider the appeal reasons stated by the applicant in the reconsideration request and shall, within 30 days from the date it receives the reconsideration request, render a decision of either "Appeal Dismissed," or "To be Revised as Instructed", and then notifying the applicant to follow the procedures as set forth in the preceding article. If the appeal is dismissed, the applicant may proceed with recompilation in accordance with the original review decision, and file a new application for approval after the recompilation.
When a decision of “To be Recompiled” is rendered and a new textbook approval application is filed pursuant thereto, the application may be exempted from the restrictions on time limits for approval application set forth in Article 4, paragraph 3. The same follows for applications rendered “To be Recompiled” by the approving agency in accordance with extension limits set forth in Article 9, paragraph 2.

During the review process, the approving agency, whenever it deems necessary, may, before making its review decision, notify the applicant to present opinions.
An applicant may, during the review process, apply to the approving agency for attending an approval committee meeting as an observer to present its opinions. Such attending request shall not be made more than once for each volume of the textbooks.

The procedures listed below shall be followed in approving the submitted draft textbooks:
1. A draft textbook for which the review decision is "Approved" shall be returned by the approving agency to the applicant for typesetting and printing a sample textbook.
2. The applicant shall print sample textbooks in accordance with approved manuscripts. Three sets of the sample textbook shall be submitted to the approving agency within 180 days from the date the draft textbook is returned to the applicant.
3. If, when typesetting and printing the sample textbook under the preceding subparagraph, the applicant finds it necessary to update or make revision thereof, it shall immediately notify the approving agency of its requests. Upon receiving notice from the approving agency that the revisions would contradict the instruction of the original review decision, the applicant shall immediately discontinue the printing, and proceed in accordance with previous articles.
4. The approving agency shall check the sample textbook for consistency with the content of the review decision before approving.
Once a textbook has been approved, the approving agency shall issue an approval license. For textbooks in the same subject, an approval license shall not be issued for a subsequent volume until after the preceding volume has been approved and issued an approval license.

A textbook approval license shall be valid for six years from the date the license is issued, and the validity period may be extended until the end of the semester in which the license shall expire or until the expiration of an extension period set by the Ministry.

Within 60 days from the publication date of an approved textbook, the approval applicant shall submit five sets of the finished version of that volume, identical to the sample textbook, to the approving agency for recordation.
The covers of approved textbooks shall be printed with "Approved by the Ministry of Education” or “Approved by Appointed Agency of the National Academy of Educational Research.”
The applicant shall not provide textbooks to schools as official textbooks before approval.

An applicant may apply to revise a textbook, with the exception of the update of data or correction of typographical errors, during the validity of the approval license, and shall follow the rules below:
1. Since the third year after the issuance date of the approval license, revisions can be made within one half of the total pages of the textbook.
2. No application for revision shall be submitted in the second year and sixth year after the first revision of the textbook.
3. The application for revision shall be only submitted once each academic year; those used in the first semester or for the full academic year shall be submitted from January to March of each year; those used in the second semester shall be submitted from July to September of each year.
4. The applications for revision for textbooks which can be used in either the first or second semester shall be submitted in either of the period specified in the preceding paragraph.

For revisions under the preceding article, the applicant shall complete an application form and submit it along with the following documents:
1. 10 to 16 copies of the textbook revision plan.
2. 10 to 16 copies of the draft revised textbook and teacher’s manual.

The approving agency shall notify the applicant of the review decision within 45 days from accepting the application for revision of the textbook. However, the approving agency shall notify the applicant that the review period may be extended by 15 days as merited by the quantity and content of the revised text under review; only one extension may be granted.
The classification of review decisions under the preceding paragraph shall be in accord with those as specified in Article 8, paragraph 2

When a review decision as to the application for revision of a textbook is "To be Revised as Instructed," the provisions of Article 9 and the forepart of Article 10 shall be followed. The approving agency shall reject late applications. However, the applicant may submit a new application for revision during the time periods specified in Article 16.

When a review decision to the application for revision of a textbook is “To be Recompiled,” the applicant shall follow the provisions of Article 11, paragraph 1, and a new application for revision may be submitted.
For the duration of the application for the aforementioned revision, restrictions set forth in Article 16 shall not be applicable. The same follows for application rendered by the approving agency as “To be Recompiled” according to Article 9, paragraph 2.

When a review decision to the application for revision of a textbook is "Approved," the validity of the original approval license shall continue until it expires; the approving agency does not need to issue a separate license for such revision.

When the approving agency has approved the application for revision of a textbook and the textbook is reprinted, the applicant shall, within 60 days, submit five reprinted sets of the finished version of that volume as approved by the approving agency for recordation; the copyright page shall state the revised edition number and the year and month of publication of the revised edition.

If an applicant makes any unauthorized change to the content of an approved textbook, the approving agency shall order it to submit an explanation within a certain deadline. The approving agency shall annul the approval license if the license holder fails to submit the explanation by the deadline, or if the circumstances are determined to be serious.

If a textbook under application for approval exploits any work of a third party, the applicant shall comply with the applicable provisions of the Copyright Act.

For textbooks to be compiled by the Ministry itself under Article 9 of the Senior High School Act, the Ministry may delegate the compilation to agencies, institutions, groups, or schools. The approval procedures for such textbooks shall be governed mutatis mutandis by the Regulations.

The Regulations shall enter into force from the date of issuance.