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Technical Reports Collection


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What are Technical Reports?

  • Documents that generally contain results of research and development supported by government grants or contracts. 
  • There are also private and corporate sponsored research reports. 
  • Although they are not usually formally refereed, they are an important form of scientific and technical information and communication.  
  • The National Technical Information Service (NTIS) currently adds over 71,000 technical reports to the database every year. 
  • They are often written as a requirement of a contract.
  • They are a permanent record of publicly supported research.
  • They are an efficient means of disseminating information back to scientists and engineers and to the general public.

- Subramanyam, Krishna. From Scientific and Technical Information Resources. Science Library T 10.7 S93 1981

Finding & Locating Reports

Finding Technical Reports is not always easy. 

Most technical report literature is not cataloged by individual report, instead the reports can be found by series, issuing body and number.  The technical report number is usually the most critical piece of information in finding or identifying a technical report. Secondly, knowing the issuing agency can help determine where a technical report is located. 

Many older technical reports will be available in print or in microfilm and might be housed at specialized libraries. 

If you know the Technical Report Number and Agency, searching UC Library Search and/or WorldCat would be useful to track it down.

Parts of a Technical Report

There are several characteristics found in most reports that can help track down the location of a report. These include:

  • personal author(s) or corporate author(s)
  • issuing agency or releasing agency
  • title 
  • publication date
  • contract or grant number
  • report number(s),
  • order or accession number
  • number of pages
  • distribution limitations, if any

Report numbers usually consist of alphanumeric characters that designate some or all of the following: originating or contracting agency, series, accession number, subject classifications, form, date, and security classification. Reports often are assigned more than one report number.

Example: ADA-88-1098: AD=Dept of Def; A=Unclassified,Unlimited; 88=Year 1988; 1098=the 1098th in a series.