This section describes the Government Printing Office (GPO) requirements for all Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) publications and print materials, including those in PDF and other electronic file formats and those printed on paper.
Publication Numbers and Dates
All EERE-branded print materials—including fact sheets, technical reports, and pamphlets—whether in electronic or printed formats, must follow these guidelines:
- All publications must have a GPO product identification (publication) number and publication date, issued from a GPO-approved printer.
- Publication numbers cannot be reused.
- Publications that are updated—including any that have title changes after publication—must have a new date and publication number.
- Interagency documents, where the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is a party, must have a publication number assigned by DOE or a national laboratory if a GPO publication number is not assigned by another agency.
- If a lab makes an EERE-branded publication for an EERE client, they should use their own lab number.
- One-time promotional materials, such as conference invitations, do not require a GPO identification.
Do I Need a Publication Number?
Publication numbers should be assigned to any EERE or DOE document that will be:
- Publicly available on energy.gov
- Put into OSTI after undergoing reviews.
For ease of tracking, citing and referencing, it is strongly recommended that your document contains a publication number even if it does not meet these criteria.
Acquiring a Publication Number
A publication number may be obtained through the national laboratories or the DOE headquarters print shop.
- When publishing at a national laboratory, use the lab publication number. While a national lab may request a publication number from DOE headquarters, it is preferred they use the lab publication number.
- If a DOE employee, contractor, or someone not at a national lab is producing a publication, request a publication number from Ken Sobczak in the DOE headquarters print shop.
Displaying Publication Numbers
The publication number and date must be on the last page or back cover of publications, usually in the footer. Please note that all labs and the DOE print shop will have their own unique numbering system, as shown in the following example:
DOE/GO-102010-1234 October 2017
The DOE number is used if the publication is made at HQ, or in some cases if several labs are making an EERE-branded document but no lab is the technical lead. The publication numbers from DOE-HQ are usually the format DOE/EE-XXXX.
Publication numbers at HQ may be requested from Ken Sobczak.
Approved Printers
Executive Order 12873 requires that all government offices and their contractors use GPO-approved printers for all publications. For EERE, the GPO-approved printers are:
- DOE national laboratories
- DOE headquarters print shop
Read our page on Preparing Files for Publication at DOE Headquarters Print Services if you intend to use the DOE headquarters print shop.