NTIS is the major clearinghouse for technical reports, indexing U.S. government sponsored research, some from corporations and academic institutions and a selection of international reports. Technical reports are a very important means of communication in the scientific and technical fields. They are used to report research progress to sponsors. These sponsors are generally government agencies, but also corporations or academic institutions. Reports tend to be timely, succinct and detailed, making them very valuable resource in engineering.
Technical reports are a integral part of the scientific communication process.
A search of the technical literature is an essential part of a quality literature review. Technical reports are indexed in several locations. Please note that some of these indexes also include the full text report. NTIS - interdisciplinary index to over 3,000,000 technical reports in all subjects located on the LIAS Fast Track Aerospace Database on the LIAS Fast Track DOE Information Bridge TRIS on the LIAS Fast Track or other sources listed on the Engineering Libraries Electronic Publications Page Technical reports can be somewhat of a challenge to locate once the appropriate database has been searched. Some are cataloged and shelved as if they were books in the circulating collection of either the Engineering Library or another University Libraries location.