Guide to Producing Successful Communications Products: Supplement to the Federal Highway Administration Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center R&D Communication Reference Guide

CHAPTER 6. OBTAINING A PUBLICATION NUMBER

Chapters 3–5 provided Office of Operations (HOP) guidelines for those products that will be released to external audiences via online, printed, or presentation communications channels. All public-facing products—except for presentations—must have HOP-issued publication numbers. Chapter 6 gives an overview of how to obtain such a number.

The HOP Project Manager (PM) should provide a completed Publication Number Request form to the Information Specialist in the final draft stages before the product is submitted for Marketing and Outreach Coordinator and Information Specialist reviews (described in Chapter 7).

The HOP PM can request a form from the Information Specialist or he/she can find the form at the Office of Operations SharePoint site, http://our.dot.gov/office/fhwa.dss/operations/HOP/Library/Forms/AllItems.aspx.³

Refer to Appendix E for a sample Publication Number Placeholder Request Form along with a listing of the Publication Categories.

The Information Specialist will then designate a publication number. The Information Specialist assigns a publication number within the fiscal year that the product will be published. For example, if the product will be published in Fiscal Year 2017, then the publication number will reflect that year (e.g., FHWA-HOP-17-XXX).

The HOP PM should direct the Contractor to put the number on the product. For direction on publication number placement, refer to Chapter 4.