If requested by a sponsor, a draft of a publication can be sent to them for review, and if they believe confidential information is being revealed, there is a process and time frame to resolve their concerns and result in revisions. We only publish information that is essential to understanding the human factors aspects of the research. So, if a sponsor would provide product plans, software to implement product features, or related information not needed to understand the human factors aspects of the research, that information will not appear in publications. We do not present confidential hardware in demonstrations. If the research staff does not publish, then those staff will be unemployed and their units will be dissolved.
Publications also serve as advertising for future work.
Publications include technical reports, commonly the project deliverable, and proceedings papers and journal articles. The later two types of publications, those that may receive the widest dissemination, are generally produced after a project is completed unless they are a contact deliverable. Generally the process of writing them often begins well after the publication lock out time frame has elapsed, and then only if the researchers have the time. Thus, the University of Michigan policy on nondisclosure agreements is similar to that of all universities, and because of their common mission to advance knowledge, have similar constraints on what they can do in secret. Universities must comply with the Freedom of Information Act and the rules of their governing boards.