Electronic journals are not a solution by themselves - they address only the cost of printing. Production costs for e-journals, especially research and development, may be higher than for print journals. Technical Reports Technical reports are an outgrowth of government-funded research. In return for funding, the government expects regular progress reports. Sometimes they contain data which appears nowhere else.
Some reports have more than one report number assigned.
The user may have to check the NTIS indexes to verify the report number. We can obtain others free of charge from the California State Library. Patents Patents are a monopoly on the manufacture and sale of inventions granted by a government in return for the publication of the details of the invention. Patents may be assigned by the inventor to another person or corporation. Patents are the most important form of publication for industrial research.