Next year McKay Professor of Applied Physics Michael Tinkham may be out the $100,000 in research funds he presently gets from the Defense Department.

Tinkham, however, is not alone. A government proposal, on its way to enactment, would allow the agency to restrict University researchers from publishing the results of work funded by the department.

Harvard, and many other universities, however, have stated that they will refuse to conduct the militarily sensitive research if the proposal is enacted.

The proposal is the Reagan Administration's latest move in its attempt to curb the release of information it deems militarily sensitive. The current proposal goes well beyond what universities have tolerated in the past and many officials view it as a violation of researchers rights to publish.

Last week the presidents of MIT, Stanford, and the California Institute of Technology sent a joint letter to the Defense Department protesting the proposal, arguing that it would interfere with academic communications.

University officials acknowledge that other schools with stronger technical orientation will be hit hardest, but Harvard could lose up to $4 million annually, in Defense Department grants, says Richard B. Leahy, associate dean of the Faculty for research and the allied institutions.

Harvard receives approximately $160 million annually in total federal aid.

Harvard professors see withholding information from print as potentially a great scientific setback.

Publication is an important part of the flow of science: stopping it will have a profound impact," says McKay Professor of Applied Sciences R. Victor Jones, adding. "It'll mean a loss for the country, a loss for the University, and a loss for the advancement of science."

Harvard's stance is based on a set of University regulations drawn up in the 1950s, and revised in 1983, stating that all information derived from research conducted at Harvard must be available to the public.

"Right now general support [for research] is not so easy to come by. If [the regulation is enacted] things will become even more difficult," says Tinkham.

For enactment of the proposal, no congressional approval is necessary, and officials agree that the Reagan Administration is not likely to back-down.

"They've taken a strong anti-communist stance, and are much more committed to the arms race than previous administrations says Director of Governmental Relations Parker L. Coddington.

But despite the Reagan Administration's plans to restrict publication it has strongly supported basic research as a means for advancing the national economic and military standing.

As a result, the government--instead of granting funds to university scientists will build its own research laboratories and contract private firms which do not hold the same research publication principles.