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What are Technical Reports?
What are Technical Reports?
Technical reports are publications that convey results of research that is usually funded by government or corporate organizations. They are designed to disseminate research quickly for a variety of projects. These reports are generally not peer reviewed, and are published in a numbered series by each publishing agency. Because of this, there is generally little consistency in the ways in which these reports are published and distributed. For more information, the Library of Congress has some information on the history and types of technical reports here.
How do you find Technical Reports?
Many governmental reports are available online. Use the links below to search for technical reports created by specific organizations.
US Government Technical Reports
Government reports are created with research funded in whole or in part by the United States or an international government organization.
- Sci-Tech ConnectSciTech Connect consolidates the contents of the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) Information Bridge and Energy Citations Database
- National Technical Information Service (NTIS)NTIS has citations to unclassified reports from various US federal departments.
- TRAIL - Technical Report Archive & Image LibrarySearch U.S. government technical reports issued primarily prior to 1975 and digitized by the TRAIL Working Groups.
- NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)NTRS contains aerospace related citations, online documents, images, and videos, including reports, patents, and journal articles funded by NASA.
- United States Army Corps of Engineers PublicationsIncludes Engineering Regulations, Engineering Circulars, Engineering Manuals, and other official public documents.
- Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Public DocumentsLetters and correspondence, reports, and briefs from an independent organization in the executive branch about public health and safety issues regarding nuclear facilities.
- DTIC Public Technical Reports (Dept. of Defense)Reports on Defense funded research and other activities.
- Los Alamos National Laboratory Report ResourcesThe general public can find reports using the Los Alamos library catalog. Only a small percentage of the reports are available electronically.
Technical Reports from non-governmental sources
Some of these sources may include technical reports from the US government, or technical reports with research funded by the U.S. government. Others may be published by engineering societies, or academic departments at various universities.
- Contrails20th century aerospace research, with a specific focus of work done at Illinois Tech.
- CERN Document ServerDocuments published by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
- Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) Technical ReportsElectrical engineering and computer science, at UC Berkeley (formerly NCSTRL)
- International Nuclear Information System (INIS) databaseReports from the International Atomic Energy Agency, focused on peaceful uses of nuclear science.
- Unified Computer Science TR IndexAvailable from Indiana University, Bloomington.