DA PAM 25-40: Reviews, Restrictions, and Submission Steps

DA PAM 25-40 is the Army’s procedural handbook for the Army Publishing Program. It translates the policy in AR 25-30 into concrete steps for anyone creating, revising, or rescinding an official Department of the Army publication or form, and it was most recently revised on February 1, 2024. If a document carries DA authentication, this pamphlet governed how it got there.

The pamphlet applies to the Active Army, the Army National Guard, and the U.S. Army Reserve, and to publications in any medium, whether printed, posted on an intranet, or distributed on digital media.

Who You’ll Work With

Four roles do most of the work of moving a publication.

The Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Army (AASA) sits at the top and authenticates departmental publications. Authentication represents the acts, orders, and directions of the Secretary of the Army and is what turns a draft manuscript into an enforceable official document.¹

Each HQDA principal official and Army command commander appoints a Publishing Champion at the colonel or GS-15 level. The Publishing Champion prioritizes publishing actions, maintains a fiscal year projection plan for the organization’s DA administrative publications, tracks each submission through the process, and signs DA Forms 260 and 260-1.²

At the unit level, the Publications Control Officer (PCO) reviews each submission package for administrative compliance before it reaches the Army Publishing Directorate (APD) and serves as the primary liaison with APD. For technical and equipment publications, an Equipment Publications Control Officer (EPCO) plays the same gatekeeper role.

Creating, changing, or rescinding DA policy is an inherently governmental function. Contractors cannot perform it, and they cannot serve as Publishing Champions, Publications Control Officers, EPCOs, or Functional Managers. They can help draft and edit, but the policy decisions and official submissions stay with government personnel.³

Starting a Publishing Action

Every action begins with a form. DA Form 260 covers DA administrative publications. DA Form 260-1 covers training, doctrinal, technical, and equipment publications. Both are available through the Army Publishing Directorate at armypubs.army.mil. The form captures the publication type, the sponsoring organization, the justification, and the coordination signatures.

The justification block matters more than most people expect. For an administrative revision that does not change roles, responsibilities, or mandated procedures, the form must include a specific statement confirming that fact. For a mandated revision triggered by an executive order, the form must identify the specific order by number and title.² Vague justifications slow the review or get the submission rejected.

If you’re requesting special distribution or sale to the public through the Government Publishing Office, attach a description of the publication’s contents and the proponent’s publicity plan to the DA Form 260. Unclassified administrative publications go to the APD NIPRNet mailbox. Classified publications route through the SIPRNet mailbox, with a heads-up message sent separately on NIPRNet.²

Reviews You Need Before Submitting

Legal Review

All DA administrative policy publications must undergo formal legal review by both the Office of The Judge Advocate General (OTJAG) and the Office of the General Counsel (OGC). The same requirement applies to DA general orders, where the action officer must coordinate the legal review before submitting the package to APD. Rescission requests for administrative publications also require OTJAG review. Rescinding training, doctrinal, technical, and equipment publications does not trigger a legal review requirement.²

If you’re seeking a waiver to any provision of DA PAM 25-40 itself, include a formal review by your activity’s senior legal officer in the justification package. That review is separate from OTJAG and applies even when the underlying publication action wouldn’t otherwise need legal coordination.

Security and Export Control

Publications containing classified material require accounts authorized for the appropriate classification level. If an account is not already authorized for classified service, the proponent must submit a DA Form 12-R to upgrade it, and the unit’s security officer must certify compliance.⁴ Units receiving SECRET publications must sign a registered mail receipt before delivery and return a separate contents receipt to the distribution center.

All technical manuals generated by Army organizations and their contractors must carry an export-control notice and a distribution restriction statement. Before selecting the statement, you have to determine whether the technical data is subject to withholding under AR 25-30. That determination is mandatory, not optional.

Copyright Clearance

Any copyrighted, trademarked, or similar material included in a publication requires a copyright release document. AR 27-60 governs this, and proponents coordinate with their local intellectual property legal counsel before using third-party content. Figures and graphics cannot violate copyright or trademark restrictions, and questions about specific images should go to the Director of the Army Publishing Directorate.² Skipping this step is a reliable way to have a submission bounced back.

How the Manuscript Must Be Written

DA PAM 25-40 requires publications to be written in plain language, using active voice whenever possible. The guidance is practical: choose simple words over complex ones, write to one person rather than a group, keep sentences short, and use lists, tables, and figures because they’re easier to process than long narrative blocks. Figures and graphics themselves must follow the same plain-language standards and reduce technical terms and Army jargon.²

Every publication except command policies must contain three major components: front matter (title page and table of contents), body, and rear matter (appendixes and glossaries). The pamphlet specifies font styles, margin widths, and rules for placement of the Army seal and other authorized insignia. Electronic forms must include metadata and digital signature fields that comply with Army network security protocols.

Electronic publications also have to comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. AR 25-1 implements this, requiring that websites and electronic information technology be equally accessible to disabled and non-disabled users.⁵ Build accessibility in during preparation; retrofitting after authentication is not an option.

Distribution Restriction Statements

Every Army technical document must carry a distribution restriction statement on the first page or cover, regardless of format. DoD Instruction 5230.24 sets six standard statements:

Statement A: Approved for public release with unlimited distribution. This applies only to unclassified information with no export-control restrictions.
Statement B: Distribution limited to U.S. Government agencies only.
Statement C: Distribution limited to U.S. Government agencies and their contractors.
Statement D: Distribution limited to the Department of Defense and U.S. DoD contractors only.
Statement E: Distribution limited to DoD components only (military and civilian employees of the DoD).
Statement F: Further distribution only as directed by the controlling DoD office or higher authority.

For Statements B through E, the marking must include the authorized audience, the reason for the restriction, the date of determination, and the controlling DoD office. If the information exists only in a digital format without a traditional cover page, the statement still has to be affixed in the most obvious position possible. The former Distribution Statement X has been cancelled; material previously marked with Statement X should now carry Statement C with “export control” as the reason.⁶

Submission, Authentication, and Posting

Once the manuscript, DA Form 260, legal reviews, and supporting documentation are assembled, the package routes through the PCO for an administrative completeness check. The Publishing Champion then signs the DA Form 260, confirms coordination is sufficient, and forwards the package to APD. The Publishing Champion also tracks progress through the pipeline.²

APD conducts a final technical review, checking formatting, coordination, and any applicable legal clearances. When the package clears, the AASA authenticates the publication. Authentication formally clears the content, verifies required coordination occurred, and authorizes issuance. After that point, no one may alter the content in any way. Only the proponent can modify the document, and only by revising or rescinding it through the same DA Form 260 process.³

Once authenticated, the publication receives a permanent number and posts to armypubs.army.mil. That number cannot be reused if the publication is later rescinded or superseded.

Keeping Publications Current

Publishing is not the end. The Secretary of the Army requires every DA administrative publication to be revised, certified as current, or proposed for rescission within a five-year currency window. The proposed authentication date for any revision must fall no more than five years from the publication’s current issue date.²

Each HQDA principal official receives a minimum fiscal year allocation stating how many publishing actions they must complete to keep their publications current. Publishing Champions maintain a rolling five-year Fiscal Year Projection Plan listing every publication and the month it will be authenticated. Revisions can take a year or more, so backward planning matters. A proponent who waits until year four to start a revision is already behind schedule.

Rescission and Supersession

Only a publication’s proponent can rescind or revise it. Rescission uses the same DA Form 260 process and requires OTJAG legal review for administrative publications. If a proponent agency is reorganized or eliminated, its publications and prescribed forms must either transfer to another proponent or be rescinded.³

Supersession follows strict rules about which publication types can replace which. An Army Regulation can supersede another AR, a DA Pamphlet, or an HQDA policy notice. A DA Pamphlet can only supersede another DA Pamphlet. An Army Directive can supersede an AD, AR, DA Pamphlet, or HQDA policy notice. The number of any rescinded or superseded publication is permanently retired.³

What You Cannot Use Instead

Workarounds that bypass the formal publishing process are prohibited because they undermine the reliability of the system. Multiple-addressee correspondence, memorandums of instruction, policy memorandums, electronic messages, and SOPs cannot substitute for issuing, changing, or revising Army policy at the appropriate level. ALARACT messages and similar electronic messages may notify personnel of impending changes, but they cannot establish new policies or prescribe forms.³ This is the rule that catches most units off guard. Issuing guidance through a policy memo feels faster, but if it establishes new requirements, it should go through the formal publishing process.

Non-departmental publications, meaning those issued by commands or installations without DA authentication, cannot be referenced in a departmental publication. Command and agency regulations also cannot impose policies that apply outside their own chain of command. Publications with excessive decorative graphics or that glorify specific persons, units, or activities are prohibited unless they announce citations and awards.³

1
Defense Technical Information Center. The Army Publishing Program
2
Army Publishing Directorate. DA PAM 25-40 – Army Publishing Program Procedures
3
Army Publishing Directorate. Army Regulation 25-30 – Army Publishing Program
4
U.S. Army Center of Military History. DA PAM 25-33 – Users Guide for Army Publications and Forms
5
FOIA Reading Room – U.S. Army. Accessibility
6
Department of Defense. DoDI 5230.24 – Distribution Statements on DoD Technical Information