A term defined by a member of the space is pending until it is approved. Approval comes in two ways: a member of the space publishes an approval of the term's nanopublication, or the term was published by a holder of the space's auto-approved role, which is how bulk imports and bots contribute without a person approving each term. A member can also disapprove a term, which sets it aside.

The vocabulary's page shows approved terms in its Classes and Terms lists, and pending ones separately with approve and disapprove actions, so the state of every term is visible and the decisions are recorded as nanopublications.