diff --git a/changelog/@unreleased/pr-1606.v2.yml b/changelog/@unreleased/pr-1606.v2.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bc0282637
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/@unreleased/pr-1606.v2.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+type: fix
+fix:
+  description: Baseline correctly preserves the DOCTYPE when generating checkstyle.xml.
+  links:
+  - https://github.com/palantir/gradle-baseline/pull/1606
diff --git a/gradle-baseline-java/src/main/groovy/com/palantir/baseline/plugins/BaselineConfig.java b/gradle-baseline-java/src/main/groovy/com/palantir/baseline/plugins/BaselineConfig.java
index a6a66471f..0e62b8579 100644
--- a/gradle-baseline-java/src/main/groovy/com/palantir/baseline/plugins/BaselineConfig.java
+++ b/gradle-baseline-java/src/main/groovy/com/palantir/baseline/plugins/BaselineConfig.java
@@ -126,6 +126,10 @@ public void execute(Task task) {
                     TransformerFactory transformerFactory = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
                     Transformer transformer = transformerFactory.newTransformer();
                     transformer.setOutputProperty(OutputKeys.ENCODING, "UTF-8");
+                    transformer.setOutputProperty(
+                            OutputKeys.DOCTYPE_PUBLIC, document.getDoctype().getPublicId());
+                    transformer.setOutputProperty(
+                            OutputKeys.DOCTYPE_SYSTEM, document.getDoctype().getSystemId());
 
                     DOMSource source = new DOMSource(document);
                     StreamResult result = new StreamResult(new FileWriter(checkstyleXml.toFile()));