DCMA

Communicator is the official magazine of the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA). It is intended to provide our employees, our customers, members of the Department of Defense and the general public with information about the agency's mission, operations and people. The magazine is published under a commercial contract administered by the U.S. Government Printing Office.

Submission Requirements

Inquire before you write. Speak with your Division Public Affairs Advisor about your proposed article before you begin to write. If you don’t know who your Division Public Affairs Advisor is, email dcmaCommunicator@dcma.mil to find out. The content of the magazine is planned months in advance, and the advisor can advise you how best to match your article with the magazine's needs. The advisor also can help shape your subject to fit a particular issue and save you from spending time on an article that someone else is writing. All submissions will not necessarily be published. The Communicator editor reserves the right to edit all submissions.

All story and photos intended for the Communicator should be submitted through Contract Management Office leadership to the respective Division Public Affairs Advisors. Production schedules for individual issues are available upon request ( dcmaCommunicator@dcma.mil). Division Public Affairs personnel will review the articles and forward, as appropriate, to the headquarters Communicator staff.

Topics

Submit material that would be of interest to the Communicator readership, including stories about DCMA operations/mission accomplishment beyond the routine; people and/or units excelling in their duties/mission; people who have made suggestions that improve Agency procedures (either operational or administrative) or save the government money; studies of aspects of the mission and the results of those studies (positive and negative); programs that are improving DCMA's service to the warfighter; and policy and regulations changes.  
Articles about award winners are generally limited to Headquarters, DCMA level or higher. Change of command articles are generally limited to Defense Contract Management Divisions or higher. Promotion articles are generally limited to selections for general officer or to the Senior Executive Service.

Articles should be written in feature magazine style, not as reports. Presentation should enable reader to distinguish between fact and opinion. When an opinion is expressed, the source must be identified.

In first references, identify all individuals by service, rank (if military), full name, job title, office name and location (at minimum, city and state). Use last name on subsequent references. Use conversational, not formal or technical, language. Quote authoritative sources.

Technical Terms

Spell out all terminology and titles when first used, then abbreviate, or use acronyms in subsequent references.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the editor are always welcome. However, anonymous submissions will not be published.

Copy Format

All article submissions must be submitted electronically within Microsoft Word and not exceed 1000 words.

Photographs Submit photographs as a digital file attached separate from the article. Please do not imbed photos in Microsoft Word™ or PowerPoint™ documents. Write a caption for each photo, identifying each person and explaining the event taking place. Give credit to the photographer, giving his or her Service (if military), military rank, full name, duty title, office address and telephone number.

Action photos (photos of people in the act of doing their jobs not looking straight into the camera) are preferred over group or posed shots (people doing nothing and looking straight into the camera.)

Clearance of Submissions

Authors must obtain security approval through local channels when necessary.