Department of Defense public access policy

Please note: Below is the current policy and procedures for the Department of Defense. This policy and procedure will change as all federal funding agencies begin compliance with the August 2022 White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) policy memorandum entitled “Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research.” Please see our OSTP/Nelson Memo impact webpage for more details and updates about the policies and upcoming changes.

What do I need to submit?

Per DoD Instruction 3200.12 “DoD Scientific and Technical Information Program (STIP), Change 3: “Publicly releasable results of research arising directly from DoD funding and published in peer-reviewed publications must be stored for long-term preservation and publicly accessible to search, retrieve, and analyze in ways that maximize the impact and accountability of the DoD’s research investment.” Final peer reviewed manuscripts or final published documents must be available for reading, download, and analysis in digital form no later than 12-months after publication.

Where do I submit my manuscripts?

Research publications must be submitted to the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) databases at the time of acceptance for publication. Publications are made discoverable and available in PubDefense after the embargo period.

When do I need to submit?

At the time of acceptance for publication.

What is the embargo period before publication in PubDefense?

The embargo period is 12 months from date of publication. Research publications submitted by authors who have opted for open access publication will be made available in PubDefense at the time of publication.

How do I submit?

Submit the Author’s Final Peer-reviewed Refereed Manuscript to DTIC at time of acceptance for publication.

Include DOI and journal citation metadata
DTIC will embargo for 12-months before posting the manuscript on our public site.

If you have a government CAC or PIV card, submit through DTIC TR input submission interface.

If do not have a government CAA or PIV card, submit though the Multi-Agency Submission Interface (MASI).

Submission information for Document type and Subtype of journal article:

Document Type:
- Choose “Journal Article – Open Access” if the article was published under a Creative Commons or Open Access license.
- If not, choose “Journal Article – Embargoed Full-Text”.
Document SubType:
- Choose “Author Manuscript” if the version you are submitting is the final author’s peer-reviewed refereed manuscript (preferred) or “Publisher’s Version” if it is the publisher’s version.