A publication lets you collect replication definitions for related tables and stored procedures and then subscribe to them as a group.
You create publications at the primary Replication Server and subscribe to them at the destination Replication Server.
When you use publications, you create and manage these objects:
Article – identifies a replication definition, primary database, and publication. It may also limit the number of rows or parameters sent to the replicate database.
Publication – a collection of articles from a primary database.
Publication subscription – a subscription to a publication. When you create a publication subscription, Replication Server creates a subscription for each article in the publication.
Publications allow you to group replication definitions and subscriptions in a manner that makes sense for your system. It also allows you to create and check the status of only one subscription for a set of tables and procedures.