Guidance

Submit a research report to MOD

Find out how to submit your research to Athena, Dstl's central repository of MOD-sponsored scientific and technical research reports.

• From: Ministry of Defence and Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
• Published: 1 July 2014
• Last updated: 16 October 2024 — See all updates

Athena will add any newly published science and technology (S&T) research reports produced in support of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) S&T programme into the Athena report collection free of charge as long as reports meet the following criteria:

• all material must have an S&T focus
• all material must be technically reviewed
• all material must include a completed report documentation page (see below)

Reports sent to Athena that don’t meet this criteria will not be added to the collection.

Report documentation page

The report documentation page is a 2-page form that must be attached to the end of each report, regardless of whether the report template used is a Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) template, MOD template, industry template or a customer-specific template.

The report documentation page is comprised of a number of fields. This allows the author to provide a range of information about the report, for example, its classification and its intellectual property conditions (such as copyright conditions and who the report can be released to). This information helps Athena to manage the report appropriately. It also enables effective search and retrieval of the document from the Athena report collection.

Guidance

Read this guidance before completing the form.

• Report documentation page: guidelines for use (PDF, 36.1 KB, 2 pages)
• Report documentation page: guidelines for use (open document format) (ODT, 13.5 KB)

Form

• Report documentation page (MS Word Document, 60 KB)

Defence research report specification

The Defence research report specification (ODT, 140 KB) outlines requirements for the presentation, format and production of scientific and technical reports prepared for MOD. Its aim is to standardise the format and content of all reports supplied under contract to MOD. It provides a template report cover page, guidance on completing the Report documentation page (MS Word Document, 60 KB), explains the sections that are expected to feature in a MOD report, includes guidance on writing abstracts and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) statements for use in MOD reports.

Athena collection management policy

For more information on the types of documents accepted into the Athena report collection, please read the Athena collection management policy (ODT, 64.3 KB).

More information

If you have any questions about submitting a report to Athena, please email AthenaEnquiries@dstl.gov.uk.

Published 1 July 2014
Last updated 16 October 2024 + show all updates

1. 16 October 2024

   Updated defence research report specification and report documentation page: guidelines for use (open document format).

2. 27 June 2022

   Updated reporting document.

3. 28 September 2021

   Updated report documentation page guidelines, defence research report specification and Athena collection management policy.

4. 24 November 2017

   New collection management policy added.

5. 28 April 2017

   New version of report documentation page added

6. 12 December 2016

   Defence research report specification document updated

7. 8 January 2016

   Updating Defence research report specification guide

8. 1 July 2014

   First published.