About Workflow Publishing Scopes

There are four different workflow scopes available for the Simple Publishing method, depending on your SharePoint version. You can allow any or all of the following scopes for workflow designers:

Scope	Description
Publish to List	When you publish a workflow to a list, the workflow is only associated to the list where the workflow was created. It is not reusable and cannot be associated to other lists. If you want to use the same workflow on another list, you can publish the workflow template again to the new list.
Publish to Site	When you publish a workflow to the site, it can be associated to any list or library in the site where the workflow was created. It is reusable. To associate a workflow to another list after it is published, use the Workflow Settings option in the List/Library ribbon or Settings page. NOTES: Publishing a workflow to a site is not the same as publishing a site workflow, which is a workflow that is associated to a site instead of a list. This scope is available in Workflow Conductor for SharePoint 2010 or 2013 only.
Publish to Site Collection	When you publish a workflow to the site collection, it can be associated to any list or library in any site in the site collection where the workflow was created. It is reusable. To associate a workflow to another list after it is published, use the Workflow Settings option in the List/Library ribbon or Settings page. NOTES: To publish a workflow to a site collection, Conductor Studio must be started from a list or library in the top-level/root site of the site collection. If you are on another site, the Publish to Site Collection option will be disabled. This scope is available in Workflow Conductor for SharePoint 2010 or 2013 only.
Publish as Site Workflow	When you publish a workflow as a site workflow, it is associated to the site where the workflow was created. It is not reusable and cannot be associated to other sites. If you want to use the same workflow on another site, you can publish the workflow template again to the new site. NOTES: Site workflows cannot use Current Item or Current List lookups, since they are not associated to a list and are not started on items. However, most other widget and workflow functionality can be used in a site workflow. This scope is available in Workflow Conductor for SharePoint 2010 or 2013 only. See an example of a site collection workflow using the Collect Data From User widget.