Research Guides: *U.S. Federal Documents: Technical Reports

Technical Reports: A Definition

"A technical report is a document that describes the process, progress, or results of technical or scientific research or the state of a technical or scientific research problem. It might also include recommendations and conclusions of the research." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_report

Technical reports are produced by corporations, academic institutions, and government agencies at all levels of government, e.g. state, federal, and international. Technical reports are not included in formal publication and distribution channels and therefore fall into the category of grey literature.

Search Engines & Databases

Science.gov
Searches over 60 databases and over 2,200 scientific websites hosted by U.S. federal government agencies. Not limited to tech reports.
WorldWideScience.org
A global science gateway comprised of national and international scientific databases and portals, providing real-time searching and translation of globally-dispersed multilingual scientific literature.
Open Grey
System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe, is your open access to 700.000 bibliographical references.
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OpenGrey covers Science, Technology, Biomedical Science, Economics, Social Science and Humanities.

Multi-Disciplinary Technical Report Repositories

National Technical Reports Library (NTRL) This link opens in a new window
The National Technical Reports Library provides indexing and access to a collection of more than two million historical and current government technical reports of U.S. government-sponsored research. Full-text available for 700,000 of the 2.2 million items described. Dates covered include 1900-present.

Argonne National Lab: Scientific Publications
While sponsored by the US Dept of Energy, research at Argonne National Laboratory is wide ranging (see Research Index)
Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC)
The Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC®) has served the information needs of the Defense community for more than 65 years. It provides technical research, development, testing & evaluation information; including but not limited to: journal articles, conference proceedings, test results, theses and dissertations, studies & analyses, and technical reports & memos.
HathiTrust
This repository of books digitized by member libraries includes a large number of technical reports. Search by keywords, specific report title, or identifiers.
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL)
LBNL a multiprogram science lab in the national laboratory system supported by the U.S. Department of Energy through its Office of Science. It is managed by the University of California and is charged with conducting unclassified research across a wide range of scientific disciplines.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
NIST is one of the nation's oldest physical science laboratories.
RAND Corporation
RAND's research and analysis address issues that impact people around the world including security, health, education, sustainability, growth, and development. Much of this research is carried out on behalf of public and private grantors and clients.
TRAIL Technical Report Archive & Image Library
Identifies, acquires, catalogs, digitizes and provides unrestricted access to U.S. government agency technical reports. TRAIL is a membership organization.
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Majority of content is pre-1976, but some reports after that date are included.

Topical Technical Report Repositories

Aerospace / Aviation

Contrails
20th century aerospace research, hosted at the Illinois Institute of Technology
Jet Propulsion Laboratory Technical Reports Server
repository for digital copies of technical publications authored by JPL employees. It includes preprints, meeting papers, conference presentations, some articles, and other publications cleared for external distribution from 1992 to the present.
NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server
The NASA STI Repository (also known as the NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)) provides access to NASA metadata records, full-text online documents, images, and videos. The types of information included are conference papers, journal articles, meeting papers, patents, research reports, images, movies, and technical videos – scientific and technical information (STI) created or funded by NASA. Includes NTIS reports.

Computing Research

Energy

INIS International Nuclear Information System
One of the world's largest collections of published information on the peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory Research Library
Primary subject areas covered include chemistry, physics, materials science, biological and environmental sciences, computer science, mathematics, engineering, nuclear technology, and homeland security.
OSTI.gov
The primary search tool for DOE science, technology, and engineering research and development results
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over 70 years of research results from DOE and its predecessor agencies. Research results include journal articles/accepted manuscripts and related metadata; technical reports; scientific research datasets and collections; scientific software; patents; conference and workshop papers; books and theses; and multimedia
OSTI Open Net
Provides access to over 495,000 bibliographic references and 147,000 recently declassified documents, including information declassified in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. In addition to these documents, OpenNet references older document collections from several DOE sources.

Environment

National Service Center for Environmental Publications
From the Environmental Protection Agency
US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) Digital Library
See in particular the option to search technical reports by the Waterways Experiment Station, Engineering Research and Development Center, and districts.

Forensics

National Clearinghouse for Science, Technology and the Law (NCSTL)
Forensic research at the intersection of science, technology and law.

Transportation

ROSA-P National Transportation Library
Full-text digital publications, datasets, and other resources. Legacy print materials that have been digitized are collected if they have historic, technical, or national significance.