DOT HS xxx xxx	Month 202x

[DOT HS number and date of publication will be updated at time of production. The month will be the date of publication, not the date when report was submitted to NHTSA.]

NHTSA Level 3 Report Template Instructions

[Save report as Microsoft Word .doc or .docx.]

[This page is in every NHTSA report. Do not edit the Disclaimer text. Please do edit the citation.]

DISCLAIMER

This publication is distributed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in the interest of information exchange. The opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Department of Transportation or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The United States Government assumes no liability for its contents or use thereof. If trade or manufacturers’ names or products are mentioned, it is because they are considered essential to the object of the publication and should not be construed as an endorsement. The United States Government does not endorse products or manufacturers.

Note: A few reports will also include an additional disclaimer. That disclaimer will be added by NHTSA when the document is in layout.

Suggested APA Format Citation:

Firstauthor, A. B., Subsequentauthors, A. B., & Lastauthor, A. (202x, Month). Title of work italicized and sentence case; First word of subtitle also capitalized (Report No. DOT HS xxx xxx). National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. [DOT HS number and date will be assigned at publication.]

[This page is in every NHTSA report. Please fill out as much as you can. Align text boxes to the left. This page should always be numbered i.]

Technical Report Documentation Page

1. Report No.	2. Government Accession No.	3. Recipient’s Catalog No.
DOT HS xxx xxx [OCCI will update]
4. Title and Subtitle [Tech Doc Page font size must be 10 pts.]	5. Report Date Month 202x [OCCI will update]
6. Performing Organization Code
7. Author(s)	8. Performing Organization Report No.
[Must have lead author first. Order of names will be used in citation. Full names are allowed here.]	DOT-VNTSC-NHTSA-xx- xx
9. Performing Organization Name and Address	10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS)
[Name] [Street address] [Optional secondary address] [City, state, ZIP code]
11. Contract or Grant No.
12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address National Highway Traffic Safety Administration [Optional Department] 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE Washington, DC 20590	13. Type of Report and Period Covered
[optional] Draft, Final Report, etc.
14. Sponsoring Agency Code
15. Supplementary Notes
[Can be left blank. Sometimes names the COR.]
16. Abstract [Any length so long as it doesn’t cause form to exceed one page.]
17. Key Words	18. Distribution Statement
[If not a proper noun/phrase, use lowercase words. Separate key words with commas.]	Document is available to the public from the National Technical Information Service, www.ntis.gov.
19 Security Classif. (of this report)	20. Security Classif. (of this page)	21 No. of Pages	22. Price
Unclassified	Unclassified	xx

Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72)	Reproduction of completed page authorized

Table of Contents

Please confirm TOC is linked to the correct pages.

Executive Summary	1

This is what a Heading 1 looks like	2

This is what a Heading 2 looks like	2

This is what a Heading 3 looks like	2

Tips and Tricks	3

Images/Figures	3

Tables	4

Figures	5

Equations	6

Footnotes	7

Page breaks vs. section breaks	7

Editorial Tips	8

Plain Language	8

Abbreviations	8

Data or Datum?	8

Punctuating a List	9

References	11

Appendix A: Title	A-1

Appendix B: Title	B-1

Appendix C: Title	C-1

[The Table of Contents and various chapter titles, and headings should use a uniform caps-and-lowercase.]

[Tables of Figures and Tables of Tables (following) are optional.]

[Please note that this (and the following tables) are automatically generated by Word.]

List of Figures

Figure 1. Sample, tagged image.	6

[Not required. If using title case here and elsewhere, the only words to lowercase are:

a, an, and, the, and prepositions of three or fewer letters: of, for, in, on, at, by, per, etc. Prepositions with four or more letters, like From, With, Across, Between, Among, Within, etc., are all capitalized.]

List of Tables

Table 1: Sample Table	4

Table 2: Wrong	5

Table 3: Not Preferred, But Acceptable	5

List of Acronyms

ACRONYM	Use lowercase for words, terms, phrases, etc., that are not proper nouns/phrases. Do not capitalize first letter if not a proper noun.

ACRONYM	Do not list simple, well-known acronyms/abbreviations such as mph, ID, U.S., GPS, SUV, U.S. DOT, NHTSA, CD or CD-ROM, Inc., Ltd., PDF, mpg, mph, etc.

ACRONYM	If you choose to use this List of Acronyms, do NOT also put acronyms inside parentheses (UMTRI) in the text that follows. The rule of acronyms is you may explain them once and only once, either here or the first time in text, not both, and not multiple times.

[Note that this uses the Acronym List style.]

Executive Summary

The preferred font for the Body Text is Times New Roman, 12-point. If you absolutely need to change the look for a text element, please do it by modifying the Style. Do not make changes to every element by hand. If you copy and paste text into this template, please apply the correct styles.

Only insert one space after a period.

Do not indent the first line of a paragraph.

Do not add a blank return between paragraphs. Extra space is built into the “Body Text” style. This is also true of the heading styles.

This is what a Heading 1 looks like

Heading 1 is bolded, 14 pt. Arial, with six points of space after the paragraph. This is what the Body Text style looks like. It is 12 point, Times New Roman with single line spacing. It also has six points of space after each paragraph so that there is no need for a blank return between paragraphs.

Each Heading 1 will start on a new page.

Please note that, as a government agency, NHTSA is required to follow Section 508 accessibility guidelines. Much of the formatting in this template is designed to address common accessibility issues. That is why we ask researchers not to change the text styles found on this template.

This is what a Heading 2 looks like

Heading 2 is bolded, 12 pt. Arial with 12 points of space above the paragraph, and 6 points below.

List styles:

List Number

List abc

List Bullet

List Bullet_Sub

This is what a Heading 3 looks like

Heading 3 is bolded and italics, 12 pt. Arial with 12 points of space above the paragraph, and 6 points below.

This is what a Heading 4 looks like

Heading 4 is bolded, 11 pt. Arial with 12 points of space above the paragraph, and 3 points below.

Tips and Tricks

Images/Figures

Please do not assemble layered graphics in Word.

This causes problems when we convert the Word document to PDF. Please assemble your graphics in another graphics program and then insert them into the Word document. Please submit the graphics source files with the finished Word file in case we run into problems with the document when preparing it for publication.

Always include alt text in your images.

You can do that in Word by right-clicking on the image and selecting Format Image. You’ll find an Alt Tag tab. Fill out the Description field (the Title field can be left blank). The point of an “alt tag” is to give the person listening to your report an idea of what the image is. They don’t need a lot of detail, particularly if the image is described in the text around it. There is no need to duplicate text. If the figure is described in the text, the alt text can simply be “Figure 1: Event photo” or “Figure 22: Photo of GMC tire.”

Please do not use color coding in your figures or graphics.

Add color to images and graphics to add to the visual experience of the document, but do not make data comprehension contingent on being able to see colors. Color-coding is not visible for people with vision impairment and does not align with Section 508 accessibility guidelines.

Create automated captions.

Use the Reference > Insert Caption feature to title the table. This has the added benefits of automatically numbering your figures for you, and of making it very easy to create a Table of Figures at the front of your document.

Wrapping text around images

Please do not wrap text around your images. Doing so creates problems with the table of figures links, generates problems when people change screen size while reading, and creates problems with tagging documents for accessibility.

Put figures and tables on their own line.

Scanning data tables or appendices into documents

Please do not place scanned or screen-shot data tables into a document. Those are not machine-readable and have to be treated as an image – which prohibits a person from reading your document using an audio reader.

The same goes for images of scanned text that are inserted as appendices. The information on those pages are inaccessible to someone using an audio reader. The solution is to copy and paste the documents into the Word doc. If the formatting of the original text is important, submit those files as separate documents and be sure to include detailed instructions. The graphic designer can assemble the pieces in production.

Tables

Don’t use tables to format your text.

Ensure that anything set as a table is actually data and not a way to force a certain layout – like wrapping text around an image or creating a columned format such as this. Doing this makes the final reports align poorly with Section 508 accessibility guidelines.

Don’t do this	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean lobortis nisi vitae sem euismod sollicitudin. Sed blandit rhoncus viverra. Nulla lacus mi, elementum vitae orci ut, aliquam egestas sem. Integer tellus dui, aliquet sollicitudin justo a, semper malesuada dui. Sed mauris odio, imperdiet id massa quis, molestie congue ligula. Maecenas suscipit, lacus eu consequat dapibus, lectus nibh congue ipsum, eu venenatis neque arcu sit amet magna. Nam eget sem quam. Pellentesque quis tincidunt libero. Etiam nec porta turpis, nec sagittis justo.

Tag your tables in Word.

Properly mark table titles and column/row headers. Use the Reference > Insert Caption feature to create the title for the table. This automatically numbers your tables for you, and makes it very easy to create a List of Tables at the front of your document. This also allows you to create an automated “Table of Tables” if you want one. Table captions should be on top of the table, centered and in italics.

This sample table is properly tagged.

Table 1: Sample Table

Column 1	Column 2	Column 3	Column 4	Column 5	Column 6
Data	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data
Data	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data
Data	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data

Think about color and contrast.

Color contrast often applies to tables and must be addressed to align with Section 508 guidelines. Column headers need to have sufficient visual contrast between the text and the background.

The following two tables are examples of insufficient contrast between the column headers and the cell fill color.

Table 2: Wrong

Column 1	Column 2	Column 3	Column 4	Column 5	Column 6
Data	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data
Data	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data
Data	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data

Table 3: Not Preferred, But Acceptable

Column 1	Column 2	Column 3	Column 4	Column 5	Column 6
Data	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data
Data	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data
Data	Data	Data	Data	Data	Data

If you must use color in your tables, be mindful of contrast and use the lightest shade possible.

Note: Color-coding tables also creates inaccessible tables. If a person can’t physically see the colors in a color-coded table or figure, he or she is missing key information from your table or figure.

Figures

Use the Reference > Insert Caption feature to create the title for the table. This automatically numbers your tables for you, and makes it very easy to create a List of Figures at the front of your document. This also allows you to create an automated “Table of Figures” if you want one. Figure captions should be below the figure, centered, and in italics.

Please tag your images. To do that, go to Format Picture > Alt Text. The idea behind alt text is to help someone who may be reading your report with an audio browser (most likely because of vision difficulties). Images, like the one below, is just a picture of words. The audio browsers can’t “read” pictures, so they need some alternate text.

The alt text should describe what is in the image, in the context of the rest of the report.

Figure 1. Sample, tagged image and Alt Text description

Figures called out in text should not be boldfaced or italicized.

Equations

Insert > Equation:

Whenever possible, try to put equations on a new line, since equations often require extra space above and below, making the line spacing look odd. If putting the equation on a new line is not possible, just leave the awkward line spacing as it appears. Don’t try to fix it.

Continue body text style after equation as applicable.

Footnotes

To create footnotes, please use the Body Text text style and the automated tools built into Word for creating footnotes. Using these tools will create footnotes that are properly formatted, automatically numbered, and linked from the text call out to the footnote.

Please do not number footnotes by hand, or change the look of the footnotes.

This is an example of the Footnote Citation style. A Footnote Citation style is used when you choose to put citations throughout the document rather than in a References section at the end. This is an example of the Footnote Text style.

Page breaks vs. section breaks

Both of these features can be used to force a page to end at a particular line. Section Breaks-Next Page should only be used to change page numbering or to insert a landscape-oriented page into your document.

For all other instances, use Page Breaks.

Section Break-Continuous should only be used if you have multi-column text that isn’t a table.

Never use Section Break –Even/Odd page. They are not appropriate for a digital-only document.

Editorial Tips

The following guidance comes from the editorial style guides used at NHTSA: GPO (www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-STYLEMANUAL-2016/pdf/GPO-STYLEMANUAL-2016.pdf), APA (www.apastyle.org/manual), and a style guide that addresses issues specific to NHTSA research reports.

There are some common issues we see.

Plain Language

As a government agency, NHTSA is required to use “plain language” in its publications. These are small changes to the text that make the overall document more readable. For example:

use person instead of individual,

use let instead of allow,

use near instead of in close proximity to,

use has instead of contains,

use time instead of time period,

use 2019 instead of the year 2019,

You can read more about plain language writing at www.plainlanguage.gov/howto/wordsuggestions/simplewords.cfm.

Abbreviations

Because of the technical nature of many NHTSA reports, abbreviations are common. Here are some quick tips for handling them in text.

Either have a list of abbreviations/terms at the front of your report, or put the abbreviations in parentheses in the text—never do both.

Put the text abbreviation in parentheses after the first reference in the main body of the text, but only once. After the first time, refer to the term by its abbreviation only.

Do not use parenthetical abbreviations in a title, chapter heading, section head, caption, table of contents, or any place other than the main text. Once this has been done, however, you can use the abbreviation by itself, in a title, chapter, caption, etc.

Not every term needs to be spelled out. Terms that are commonly used (like U.S. or NHTSA or mph) do not need explanation. If you are writing a technical document meant for the industry, there is no need to spell out terms common in the industry.

Data or Datum?

According to GPO, “data” is a collective singular. That means “data” can be used as either a singular or a plural. “Datum” should not be used.

Punctuating a List

If the bullet list is introduced by what appears to be a proper sentence (subject noun, verb, etc.) followed by a comma or colon,

all of the elements in the bullet list are to be treated as parts of that sentence as well. That is, they must be punctuated with commas or semicolons (as appropriate),

the next-to-last element needs to end with the word “and” (because the bullets are treated as a series),

the final bullet must end with a period, and

if the list is introduced by a colon, each bullet must begin with a capital letter; if the list is introduced with a comma (as a series), then each element can be lowercased (like any other series).

The items in the bullet list can be treated as complete, independent sentences.

Each must begin with a capital letter and end with a period or question mark.

Each one must have a noun/subject and a verb, like any other sentence.

However, a bullet list can also be introduced with a title or caption that is not a proper sentence.

States With Secondary Laws

Colorado

Florida

New York

Pennsylvania

Vehicle systems

brakes

engine

exhaust

seating

Omit punctuation on a bullet list if the sentence that introduces it ends in a period.

Five States have introduced such legislation.

Hawaii

Connecticut

Texas

Nebraska

Iowa

There are other common issues that should be avoided.

Never include the word ‘the’ before NHTSA. (…according to the NHTSA…is wrong.)

Numbers one through nine should always be written out. Numbers 10 and upwards can be written as numerals. Exceptions to this:

When 2 numbers appear in a sentence and one of them is greater than 10, all numbers in the sentence can be written as numerals.

A unit of measurement, time, or money is always expressed as a figure, and does not affect the use of figures for other numerical expressions within a sentence. Age is also written in figures (6 years old, a 3-year-old, 52 years 10 months 6 days, at the age of 3 (years implied), etc.)

References

See the NHTSA In-House Editorial Style Manual for guidance on refernces. In general, references and in-text references should use the APA format described in “Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th Edition.” (See http://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4200066.aspx)

Example (alphabetical by first author, 1/2-inch hanging indent, either 6 points beneath each or 0-point but one blank line spacing):

Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.

Gates, T., Noyce, D., Laracuente, L., & Nordheim, E. (2007). Analysis of driver behavior in dilemma zones at signalized intersections. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. DOI: 10.3141/2030-05. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3141/2030-05

Green, M. (2000). How long does it take to stop? Methodological analysis of driver perception-brake times. Transportation Human Factors, (2)195-216. DOI: 10.1207/STHF0203_1 [DOI numbers always prefereable when known]

Guglielmi, J., Wilson, B., Stevens, S., Lam, A., Nodine, E., Jackson, C., & Najm, W. G. (2016). Independent Evaluation of Heavy-Truck Safety Applications Based on Vehicle-to-Vehicle and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Communications Used in the Safety Pilot Model Deployment. (Report No. DOT HS 812 224). National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/812224-heavytruckv2vreport.pdf [All NHTSA reports with DOT HS numbers must have Report No. in front. No period after URL]

Harwood, D., Mason, J., & Brydia, R. (2000). Sight Distance for Stop-Controlled Intersection Based on Gap Acceptance (Paper No. 00-3254). Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. DOI: 10.3141/1701-05 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3141/1701-05

Layton, R. (2012, April). Intersection Sight Distance (Discussion Paper #3). Kiewit Center for Infrastructure and Transportation, Oregon State University.

Nodine, E., Stevens, S., Lam, A., Jackson, C., & Najm, W. G. (2015, December). Independent evaluation of light-vehicle safety applications based on vehicle-to-vehicle communications used in the 2012-2013 Safety Pilot Model Deployment (Report No. DOT HS 812 222). National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/documents/812222-evallv_safetyapps_v2v.pdf

Acceptable alternative example:

[1] Guglielmi, J., Wilson, B., Stevens, S., Lam, A., Nodine, E., Jackson, C., & Najm, W. G. (2016). Independent Evaluation of Heavy-Truck Safety Applications Based on Vehicle-to-Vehicle and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Communications Used in the Safety Pilot Model Deployment. (Report No. DOT HS 812 224). National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/812224-heavytruckv2vreport.pdf

[2] Layton, R. (2012, April). Intersection Sight Distance (Discussion Paper #3). Kiewit Center for Infrastructure and Transportation, Oregon State University.

[3] Gates, T., Noyce, D., Laracuente, L., & Nordheim, E. (2007). Analysis of driver behavior in dilemma zones at signalized intersections. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. DOI: 10.3141/2030-05.

[4] Green, M. (2000). How long does it take to stop? Methodological analysis of driver perception-brake times. Transportation Human Factors, (2)195-216. DOI: 10.1207/STHF0203_1

[5] Harwood, D., Mason, J., & Brydia, R. (2000). Sight Distance for Stop-Controlled Intersection Based on Gap Acceptance (Paper No. 00-3254). Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board. DOI: 10.3141/1701-05 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3141/1701-05

[6] Nodine, E., Stevens, S., Lam, A., Jackson, C., & Najm, W. G. (2015, December). Independent evaluation of light-vehicle safety applications based on vehicle-to-vehicle communications used in the 2012-2013 Safety Pilot Model Deployment (Report No. DOT HS 812 222). National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/documents/812222-evallv_safetyapps_v2v.pdf

[7] Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.

Note: References may be given on each page as footnotes. If that was done, there is no need for a reference compilation at the end.

Title

Call your first appendix Appendix A, regardless of whether there are other appendices. Page number should still be listed as A-1, and so on.

Please follow the same body text, graphics, or tables guidelines as you used for the rest of the document. Use a Section Break (Next Page) to move to the next appendix.

Title

Please follow the same body text, graphics, or tables guidelines as you used for the rest of the document. Use a Section Break (Next Page) to move to the next appendix.

Title

Please follow the same body text, graphics, or tables guidelines as you used for the rest of the document. Use a Section Break (Next Page) to move to the next appendix.

DOT HS xxx xxx

Month 202 14210-022221-v5b x

This is what a citation footnote looks like. A citation footnote should have a .5-inch hanging indent and follow citation-formatting rules. This uses the style Footnote Citation. Please do not include footnote citations in a document that also has a references section. Include all citations in, either, the footnotes or the references.

This is a non-citation footnote. A non-citation footnote does not need a .5-inch hanging indent like a citation footnote. This uses the style Footnote Text.