Managing email notifications in Knowledge Management

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 6 minutes to read
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    Summary of Managing email notifications in Knowledge Management

    This guide explains the management of email notifications in ServiceNow Knowledge Management, specifically in the Zurich release. Notifications help keep relevant users informed about knowledge articles through reminders and alerts tied to various tasks and events. These notifications are essential for maintaining article quality, ensuring timely reviews, and managing article lifecycle activities such as feedback, subscriptions, approvals, translations, expirations, and quality reviews.

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    Key Email Notification Types and Their Recipients

    • Knowledge Article Feedback Tasks: Notifications are sent to users assigned feedback tasks or those who submitted feedback when comments are added, tasks are created, reassigned, resolved, or resolutions are accepted/rejected. Activation requires the Knowledge Management Core plugin.
    • Knowledge Subscriptions: Subscribers, authors, ownership group managers, and revisers receive alerts about article checkouts, comments, publication, and revisions. Ownership group notifications require activation of the Advanced plugin alongside the Core plugin.
    • Article Approval Publishing Workflow: Notifications inform knowledge base owners, managers, or ownership group members about article approval or rejection for publishing. Authors or revisers submitting articles also receive notifications. This depends on the Core plugin activation.
    • Translation Tasks: Users assigned translation tasks receive notifications when tasks are assigned or closed after translation publishing. This requires activation of the Advanced plugin and Internationalization plugins.
    • Expiring Knowledge Articles: Notifications warn authors, knowledge base owners, revisers, and ownership group members about articles nearing expiration, prompting review or extension actions. This is enabled by setting a system property and activating the Core plugin.
    • Article Quality Index (AQI) Reviews: After AQI evaluations, notifications are sent to the last updater and ownership group if enabled. This requires the Advanced plugin.

    Notification Preferences and Configuration

    Users can configure their notification preferences to control which knowledge notifications they receive, helping tailor alerts to individual roles and responsibilities. Activation of specific plugins such as Knowledge Management Core and Advanced, as well as Internationalization plugins, is necessary for certain notification types. Additionally, system properties control features like article expiry notifications.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Ensures timely engagement with knowledge articles through targeted email alerts.
    • Supports governance by notifying appropriate stakeholders about feedback, approvals, and article lifecycle events.
    • Facilitates collaboration by informing subscribers and ownership groups about relevant changes and tasks.
    • Helps maintain article relevance and quality by prompting reviews before expiration and after AQI assessments.
    • Allows customization of notification settings to fit organizational workflows and user preferences.

    Reminders enable relevant users to review knowledge articles and complete tasks associated with them.

    By default, the Knowledge Management application includes the following types of email notifications:

    You can decide if you must receive any knowledge notifications by setting notification preferences. For more information, see Set knowledge notification preferences.

    Email notifications for knowledge article feedback tasks

    The email notifications for knowledge article feedback tasks are available when your administrator activates the Knowledge Management Core plugin (com.glideapp.knowledge).

    The following table describes the recipient list of notifications for knowledge article feedback tasks and the associated conditions when a notification is sent.

    Table 1. Recipient list of the email notification for knowledge article feedback tasks
    Notification Condition Recipients
    KM Feedback Task: Commented A comment was added to a user feedback task. User who was assigned the feedback task
    KM Feedback Task: Created A user feedback task was created. User who was assigned the feedback task
    KM Feedback Task: Info from Submitter More information was requested from the submitter of a user feedback task. User who submitted the feedback task
    KM Feedback Task: Reassigned A user feedback task was reassigned. User who was reassigned the feedback task
    KM Feedback Task: Resolution Accepted A resolution described in a user feedback task was accepted. User who was assigned the feedback task
    KM Feedback Task: Resolution Rejected A resolution described in a user feedback task was rejected. User who was assigned the feedback task
    KM Feedback Task: Resolved A user feedback task was set as resolved. User who submitted the feedback task

    Email notifications for knowledge subscriptions

    The email notifications for knowledge subscriptions are available when your administrator activates the Knowledge Management Core plugin (com.glideapp.knowledge). For notifications associated with ownership groups, your administrator must also activate the Knowledge Management Advanced plugin (com.snc.knowledge_advanced).

    The following table describes the recipient list of notifications for knowledge subscriptions and the associated conditions when a notification is sent.

    Table 2. Recipient list of the email notification for knowledge subscriptions
    Notification Condition Recipients
    KM Subscription Group: Article checkout A subscribed knowledge article was checked out
    • Author (if no Ownership group is associated with the article)
    • Ownership group manager and members (if an Ownership group is associated with the article)
    • Revisers
    Note:
    The user who checked out the article does not receive the notification.
    KM Subscription Group: Article commented A comment was added to a subscribed knowledge article
    • Author (if no Ownership group is associated with the article)
    • Ownership group manager and members (if an Ownership group is associated with the article)
    • Revisers
    KM Subscription: Article published A knowledge article was created in a subscribed knowledge base
    • knowledge base owner
    • Knowledge base subscribers
    KM Subscription: Article revised A subscribed knowledge article was edited
    • Knowledge base owner
    • Knowledge article subscribers
    • Author
    • Revisers
    KM Subscription: Article revised in subscribed KB A knowledge article in a subscribed knowledge base was edited.
    • Knowledge base owner
    • Knowledge article subscribers
    • Author
    • Revisers
    • Knowledge base subscriber
    Note:
    An email notification is sent to a reviser of a knowledge article when the article versioning feature is enabled.

    Email notifications for knowledge article approval publishing workflow

    The email notifications for knowledge article approval publishing workflow are available when your administrator activates the Knowledge Management Core plugin (com.glideapp.knowledge).

    The following table describes the recipient list of notifications for the knowledge article approval publishing workflow and the associated conditions when a notification is sent.

    Table 3. Recipient list of the email notification for the knowledge article approval publishing workflow
    Notification Condition Recipients
    KM: Approve article for publishing A knowledge article was approved for publishing with the ownership group feature disabled. Knowledge base owner and managers
    A knowledge article was approved for publishing with the ownership group feature enabled. Ownership group manager and members
    Note:
    In Out-of-Box (OOB) configurations, the approval is sent only to the author.
    KM: Article approved for publish A knowledge article was approved for publication. User (author or reviser) who submitted the article for approval
    KM: Article rejected for publish A knowledge article was rejected for publication. User (author or reviser) who submitted the article for approval
    Note:
    An email notification is sent to a reviser of a knowledge article when the article versioning feature is enabled.

    Email notifications for translation tasks

    The email notifications for translation tasks are available when your administrator activates the Knowledge Management Advanced plugin (com.snc.knowledge_advanced) and I18N: Knowledge Management Internationalization Plugin v2 plugin (com.glideapp.knowledge.i18n2). The 18N: Internationalization plugin (com.glide.i18n) activates the I18N: Knowledge Management Internationalization Plugin v2 plugin.

    The following table describes the recipient list of notifications for translation tasks on knowledge articles and the associated conditions when a notification is sent.

    Table 4. Recipient list of the email notification for translation tasks
    Notification Condition Recipients
    KM Translation Task: Assigned to me A translation task was assigned. User who was assigned the translation task
    KM Translation Task: Closed A translation task was closed after the translated version of the knowledge article was published.
    • User who was assigned the translation task
    • User who submitted the translation task

    Email notifications for expiring knowledge articles

    The email notifications for expiring knowledge articles are available when your administrator activates the Knowledge Management Core plugin (com.glideapp.knowledge) and sets the value of the glide.knowman.enable_article_expiry_notification property to true. By default, the property value is set to false.

    Knowledge articles have an expiration date set using the Valid to field when creating the article. Articles do not appear in search results after the Valid to date.

    On the first day of each month, the application sends an email notification to a list of authorized recipients to remind them about articles that are scheduled to expire in the next month. The user can then determine whether to extend the Valid to date to continue providing access to the article.
    Note:
    To extend the Valid to date of a knowledge article, see Edit a knowledge article
    The content of the email notification is determined by the number of articles expiring in the coming month.
    • Up to 10 – The email notification includes a list of article links displayed in a tabular format and arranged in ascending order by their Valid to date. Clicking a link opens the article in ServiceNow AI Platform.
    • More than 10 – The email notification includes a View the list of expiring articles link, which when accessed opens a list in ServiceNow AI Platform of all articles expiring in the next month.

    The following table describes the recipient list of notifications for expiring knowledge articles and the associated conditions when a notification is sent.

    Table 5. Recipient list of the email notification for expiring knowledge articles
    Notification Condition Recipients
    KM: Article Expiry Warning An article is scheduled to expire in the next month with the ownership group feature disabled.
    • Author
    • Knowledge base owner and managers
    • Reviser for the updated and checked-out versions
    An article is scheduled to expire in the next month with the ownership group feature enabled.
    • Author
    • Knowledge base owner and managers
    • Reviser for the updated and checked-out versions
    • Ownership group manager and members
    Note:
    An email notification is sent to a reviser of a knowledge article when the article versioning feature is enabled.

    Email notifications for article quality index (AQI) reviews

    The email notifications for an article quality index review on knowledge articles are available when your administrator activates the Knowledge Management Advanced plugin (com.snc.knowledge_advanced).

    The following table describes the recipient list of notifications for an AQI review on knowledge articles and the associated conditions when a notification is sent.

    Table 6. Recipient list of the email notification for AQI reviews
    Notification Condition Recipients
    KM: AQI on Article An AQI was performed and submitted on a knowledge article with the ownership group feature disabled.

    User (author or reviser) who last updated the article
    KM: AQI on Ownership Group Article An AQI was performed and submitted on a knowledge article with the ownership group feature enabled.
    • User (author or reviser) who last updated the article
    • Ownership group
    Note:
    An email notification is sent to a reviser of a knowledge article when the article versioning feature is enabled.