What is a Report?
A significant amount of applied research in physics is first published in the form of a report. Reports can be defined as documents which contain results and/or progress of development work. The reports are often published by the funding organisation or by the academic institution or industrial firm where the work has been carried out. Many reports are openly available, whereas others - such as those about military or commercial developments - are often restricted to a limited and specific group. Restricted reports are often referred to a classified reports. It is important to note that the information in a report has not been refereed , that is evaluated by objective and external experts. A report is typically very detailed and addresses a current problem or development aspect. The information contained in reports is often published in shortened form, somewhat later in journal articles.
How to find European Reports
SIGLE includes many reports. The Commission of the European
Communities was responsible for assistance in establishing SIGLE
in the early nineteen eighties. Its aim is to improve the
accessibility of grey literature, by combining the resources of
several national information and documentation centres in a
number of EC countries.
These centres are:
Input is also made from the European Commission itself and from Belgium, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain (from 1992 onwards), as well as from Sweden.
SIGLE is available on three online host systems - STN International, BLAISE and SUNIST. The SIGLE database is also available in CD- ROM form from 1992 onwards.
The European Commission produces and disseminates a large number of reports. DG XIII is responsible for the publication of scientific and technical reports in the EUR Reports series. These are listed in the monthly Euro-Abstracts, Scientific and Technical Publications.These are also available in the CORDIS - Community R&D Information Service databases from 1990 onwards. Note: CORDIS also contains the EABS database from 1962 - . EUR Reports also form part of the Commission's SCAD - Service Centrale Automatisé de Documentation (Automated Central Documentation Service)
This is produced by BLDSC
12 issues per year + annual index on microfiche, 1981 -
This covers British reports and translations and the majority of doctoral theses from British universities. This information forms part of the SIGLE database (see above).
= Reports in the Fields of Science and Technology
Weinheim: Physik Verlag, (1978 -) 4 issues per year + annual
index on microfiche.
How to find Reports from the USA
This is published by the National Technical Information
service - NTIS
- in 24 issues per year, together with annual indexes and
cumulated indexes. The equivalent online NTIS database which
contains almost two million reports, covers US government-sponsored
research and development from over 300 federal agencies. It
includes a high proportion of reports originating from NASA -
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the DOE -
Department of Energy and the AD (publicly available) reports
series from the Defence Technical Information Centre. The
database covers, amongst other areas, materials, mechanical
engineering, methods and equipment, military sciences and space
technology. NTIS is available online on many international host
systems, such as STN,
DIALOG, EINS.
It is also available in CD-ROM form covering the period from 1980
onwards.
NASA provides a Scientific and Technical Information Server. There is also a NASA Technical Report Server with a keyword search function.
Energy.gov provides a reports bibliographic database which is searchable.
This is published by NASA. Reports issued by NASA are also included in the Aerospace Database available on DIALOG Information Services.
This is published by the US Dept. of Energy, 24 issues per year + semi-annual and annual indexes. It covers US funded energy research projects as well as international energy literature. Includes abstracts on reports, journal articles, conference papers, patents, books and theses. Each issue contains an author and subject index. Forms part of the online database ENERGY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, which is available on DIALOG Information Services.
This is another source of report literature.
How to actually obtain the Reports
When you have found references to reports that look interesting, the next stage (problem?) is to actually obtain them. University library will be able to give you advice as to the quickest and fastest ways of obtaining the reports that you want.
In EUROPE, one important aim of the SIGLE system has been to improve the document supply of grey literature. The centres involved in SIGLE act as document suppliers for reports. Ideally each country has its report supply centre, for example:
These centres act as agents for NTIS and other report producers. They have large collections of reports, usually in microfiche form, and supply copies of these to customers.