TECHNICAL REPORTS in Western New York

how to find Reports

What Are Technical Reports?

Technical reports are used typically to report the progress of research and development activities. They are used most extensively for communicating scientific and technical information, but are also used to distribute a broad range of information across disciplines. Many technical reports are the result of government sponsored research, and federal, state, and international agencies are large publishers of this type of material. Government contractors and grantees (such as universities, research organizations or corporations) produce a large percentage of the technical research literature. Technical reports are also produced independently by educational institutions, research institutes, research and development units of corporations, societies, and other types of agencies and entities.

Identifying Technical Reports

Two approaches may be used in locating technical reports. First, you may want to search for technical reports held in local library collections, including SEL. See the Directory section of this site for information on using local collections or go to the SEL Technical Reports web page for information about SEL's collection.

For a more comprehensive approach, specialized databases indexing technical report literature should be used. Some individual governmental agencies also compile indexes or searchable databases of their technical reports. Some agency sites are also beginning to include the full-text of selected reports. The following section describes some of the most important sources for locating technical reports.

return to: Technical Reports homepage

searching NTIS
NTIS (National Technical Information Services) is a self-supporting agency that has as its mission the indexing and sale of technical reports and other literature, most often produced as a result of U.S. government-sponsored research and development. The NTIS database is a major indexing source for reports handled by NTIS and is one of the most comprehensive sources to use for identifying technical reports. It is available in CD-ROM and on-line versions. The NTIS database for the years 1964 to the present is available for use on-site at SEL. NTIS also offers a subscription to the NTIS Database through its GOV.Research_Center, which allows for "day passes" for one-time use of the database. The NTIS web site also provides free access to a less comprehensive database of some 500,000 NTIS products (including technical reports), published since 1990.

The NTIS Order-Now database is searchable by keywords, country of publication, source, title, subject, personal author, performing organization, document type, language, and words within an abstract. It provides access to citations and some full-text documents for the last 90 day period.

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searching the GPO Monthly Catalog
The GPO Monthly Catalog is an index to U.S. federal documents, primarily those distributed through the depository program. It includes citations to many technical reports. While this product is distributed in CD-ROM and various on-line formats, public searchable versions are also available on the Web. The Government Printing Office provides a GPO Access searchable version covering the time period from January 1994-. The GPO Monthly Catalog is also available at the UB Libraries for on-site use by the public.

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searching the GreyLIT Network
Developed by the Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) in collaboration with DOD/DTIC, NASA, and EPA, the GrayLIT Network is a publicly accessible web portal for technical report information generated through federally funded research and development projects. It serves as a single point for searching the technical reports across a number of agencies. Currently, the site includes information on NASA, DOE, DOD, and EPA technical reports, with links to full text where available. Dates of coverage vary.

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about NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) issues numerous reports dealing not only with aeronautics and space, but with related aerospace aspects of earth resources, energy, and the environment. The most comprehensive index to NASA reports is the Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports (STAR). Issues of STAR are available on the Web from January 1996-. Earlier print issues of STAR are available for use in the SEL Periodicals Collection on the 3rd floor of Capen Hall, call number Per TL500 .S35.

NASA also provides an additional way of accessing technical reports through its NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS). This site allows you to search in one place information about technical reports published by a number of NASA Research and Space Centers. The full-text of selected reports is also available at this site.

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about EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) produces many technical reports, typically with report numbers starting with "EPA." Within the EPA web site, some technical report information is available through the EPA National Publications Catalog, which indexes titles in paper and/or electronic format, available for free distribution from the EPA. The site also includes the full text of some 10,000 current and archival publications made available as part of the National Environmental Publications Information System (NEPIS) . Many of the documents from these latter two sources are more popular public-oriented documents rather than technical reports. Many EPA reports are also available through the NTIS system.

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about USGS
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) distributes a wide variety of technical report literature, including the Open File Reports series. The USGS Publications Warehouse provides indexing to the publications of the USGS. The USGS Library's USGS homepage (http://www.usgs.gov/)

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about DOE
The Department of Energy (DOE) issues large numbers of technical reports typically with report numbers beginning with "DOE." Indexing for these reports is available through the publicly available Energy Citations Database, which provides citations and abstracts to unclassified DOE and DOE-contractor reports on energy and energy-related topics spanning the fields of chemistry, physics, materials, environmental science, geology, engineering, mathematics, climatology, oceanography, and computer science for the years 1948-present. The DOE also provides the DOE Information Bridge, which includes the full-text of many DOE and DOE-contractor reports from 1995 to the present.

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about DTIC
The Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) makes Department of Defense-related information available to government agencies and government contractors and also, through a publicly available database, to the general public. Access to unclassified reports is provided via the Scientific and Technical Information Network (STINET) published since 1974. Included in STINET are some full text DTIC reports.

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about NRC
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) publishes numerous technical reports. NRC technical reports are generally identified with report numbers beginning with "NUREG" or the SuDocs number "Y3.N88:." A small number of full-text reports are being made available at the NRC web site.

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about UN
The United Nations Scholars' Workstation at Yale University provides an organizational map of the various United Nations (UN) organizations and their publications. Its "Research Tool" and "Research Approaches" are especially helpful access points to UN information. See also the UN homepage and the Dag Hammerskjöld Library homepage. Two UN agencies in particular that publish many technical reports are the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA).

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