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 These reports are generally not peer reviewed, and are published in a numbered series by each publishing agency.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.
Government reports are created with research funded in whole or in part by the United States or an international government organization.
SciTech Connect consolidates the contents of the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) Information Bridge and Energy Citations Database
NTIS has citations to unclassified reports from various US federal departments.
Search U.S. government technical reports issued primarily prior to 1975 and digitized by the TRAIL Working Groups.
NTRS contains aerospace related citations, online documents, images, and videos, including reports, patents, and journal articles funded by NASA.
Includes Engineering Regulations, Engineering Circulars, Engineering Manuals, and other official public documents.
Letters and correspondence, reports, and briefs from an independent organization in the executive branch about public health and safety issues regarding nuclear facilities.
Reports on Defense funded research and other activities.
Publications from the National Service Center for Environmental Publications (NSCEP), the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (OAQPS) Technology Transfer Network (TTN), the Office of Science and Technology (OST) Publications Catalog
and others. Contains a section browsable by topic.
The general public can find reports using the Los Alamos library catalog. Only a small percentage of the reports are available electronically.
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.
20th century aerospace research, with a specific focus of work done at Illinois Tech.
Documents published by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
Electrical engineering and computer science, at UC Berkeley (formerly NCSTRL)
Reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency, focused on peaceful uses of nuclear science.
Available from Indiana University, Bloomington.
Earlham College • 801 National Road West • Richmond, Indiana 47374-4095