Ocean Battlespace Sensing S&T Department Annual Report Submission Guidance
Sept. 30, 2012: Due date for annual progress reports for Fiscal Year 2012 (FY12: Oct. 1, 2011 – Sept. 30, 2012)
- Everyone who received funding from us for efforts performed in the Fiscal Year is required to submit a report to the sponsoring Ocean Battlespace Sensing (OBS) program officer. If you are just getting started on your research project, then your report will be more about plans than progress. Guidance for the annual report and the required associated "statistics file" follows.
Each report submitted must consist of TWO files:
1. Report File: A presentation-ready "Report File" that ONR will archive onto CD-ROMs). Reports must be in MS Word or RTF format. The only exception: Principle investigators using LaTeX from UNIX computers. These users may submit in PDF but MUST BE AVAILABLE TO PROVIDE SHORT TURNAROUND EDIT CHANGES THAT MAY BE REQUIRED (such as a change in distribution statement or significant deviations from format guidance).
2. 'Statistics' File: In simple ASCII text format, which contains statistics and associated information required by Office of Naval Research and Department of Defense authorities and also data to automate production of the CD-ROM.
Reports must be:
- Unclassified
- Non-proprietary
Report Distribution
1. Reports 'exclusive' of predominantly intermediate and advanced efforts deemed 'sensitive' by program officers will be distributed openly via CD-ROM (Distribution A).
2. A collection of ALL reports will be selectively and very narrowly distributed to DoD and U.S. DoD contractors ONLY via a second CD-ROM (Distribution D).
Submitting Report Files: OBS program officers will promulgate to PIs separately and directly directions of how to submit the actual Annual Report files.
Special Graphics and Equations Guidance
1. Equations: It is recommended you use the standard MS Word Equation Editor to add equations to your documents. If you use the standards provided with MS Word, then you can be confidant they will be translated properly in the PDF conversion process and will read as intended on any computer. If you use other than standard MS Word fonts or equation editor, and fail to embed your equation fonts into your document, they will not display as intended on computers that do not have your ‘unique’ font installed.
If you must use other fonts or programs to create your equations:
- MS Word: Can embed only True Type fonts into your document, thus ensuring they are available to all viewers. Failure to embed fonts used may result in other computers “substituting” its own ‘best match’ font for yours, with unpredictable (and usually incorrect) results. For example, in MS Word 2007, on the 'Office Button' (upper left most corner), select the lower right tab 'Word Options', then 'Save' to reveal the 'Embed fonts in the file' check-box. Note: Some proprietary fonts will not allow their embedding into Word documents.
- PDF: Confirm the equation font is embedded in the PDF file. For example, with your document opened in Acrobat 9, from the menus, select File >> Properties >> Fonts, and confirm that all equation fonts are annotated as “Embedded” or "Embedded Subset." If not embedded, the corrected display will be dependent on viewer’s computers (i.e., other than the one used to create the file) having that particular font locally installed. Otherwise Acrobat will ‘substitute’ a ‘likely’ font with unpredictable results. Those equations will still display correctly on the ‘creating’ computer, as that computer has the not-embedded font locally available. Note: Some proprietary fonts will not allow their embedding into PDF documents.
2. Graphics: You are highly encouraged to include figures in your reports.
- "Title" and "Caption" must be 'document text' and not solely part of the 'graphic image' to comply with accessibility requirements of the amended Rehabilitation Act. This enables viewers requiring "text only" readers to understand the purpose/point of the graphic ("text readers" cannot read words that are part of the graphic).
- Centering graphics vertically BETWEEN paragraphs and not adjacent to paragraphs yields consistently good conversion to PDF format (PDF is the format used for all reports on the final CD-ROM product).
- MAC Users: Please DO NOT use MAC unique formats (such as PICT or TIFF(MAC)). MAC imaging/graphic programs typically default to PICT or TIFF(MAC) formats. Usually JPG, GIF or PNG are normally “save as” options. The MAC unique formats are incompatible with PC CD-ROM development platforms and yield unpredictable or, more usually, unacceptable results when viewed on non-MAC computers. When ‘embedding’ a picture 'object' into the document, the embedded picture retains the format of the creating application and may not be viewable on, or printable from, all platforms. The preferred (and common) file formats of JPG (photo-like) and GIF (flat-color areas) generally embed nicely and are highly recommended. TIFF(PC) (but NOT TIFF(MAC)), WMF and PNG formats, generally work well, also (though TIFF(PC) file sizes are usually much larger than their JPG or GIF equivalents). If we encounter conversion problems, we may need to solicit original pictures on short notice, so please keep copies readily available until you receive your production CD-ROM.
Comments or Questions
- Process, formatting or 'form' questions: Contact the Code 32 Web Author, subject: Annual Reports.
- Technical content of reports: Contact your sponsoring program officer.