Anodic oxidation of reactive metals such as Al and Ti produces oxide films with self-organized arrangements of nanoscale pores. Stress-driven mass transport of oxide is considered to play an important role in pore formation and self-ordering. Using in situ stress monitoring during both anodizing and subsequent open-circuit oxide dissolution, distributions of in-plane residual stress were measured in anodic alumina films formed by galvanostatic anodizing in phosphoric acid. Anodizing produced significant stress both in the oxide and at the metal-oxide interface. For oxides grown to 20nm thickness, the oxide stress was tensile below 3mA/cm(2) and compressive above this current density, while the interface stress exhibited the opposite dependence. Stress generation correlated with interfacial volume change due to reactions and transport processes: oxide or interface stress was compressive when interfacial volume was created, and vice versa. Compressive stress buildup in the oxide is apparently required for self-ordered pore formation by flow-assisted mechanisms. From the present results, a simple criterion was derived specifying the conditions for compressive stress and pore formation in terms of parameters governing film composition, ionic transport and interfacial reaction kinetics. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.