Technical reports (also called scientific reports) are most often produced by agencies responsible for scientific investigations of natural phenomena, problems or processes. These agencies are commonly governmental (local, state, federal, international) or educational agencies and organizations. Technical reports differ from articles in scientific journals in that technical reports usually do not undergo the intensive peer review process that journal articles are subject to. The review process for technical reports is a more limited process involving review within the organization that is responsible for producing the report.
In library catalogs, technical reports are treated most often like books, so you should be able to identify them with normal book searching methods. Use Knox Primo to identify technical reports, especially those from Illinois agencies.
Many technical reports from the U.S. Geological Survey are available as free pdfs at the USGS Publications Warehouse site.
For publications about Illinois try the Illinois State Geological Survey publications site.
After identifying suitable technical reports, use Google to search by the title of the report to see if it is available online. If it is not, use our Tipasa interlibrary loan service to request the materials.
Technical reports produced by government agencies are often readily available in full text on the internet. Some agencies to try are:
In addition, many states have their own natural resources department (*DNRs), for example, Missouri Department of Natural Resources. State DNRs typically produce technical reports and make data available to the public. Identify state DNRs using Google.
Also, Science.gov searches for authoritative U.S. Government science information, including research and development results, from over 42 databases and over 2000 selected websites from 14 federal agencies.
