Library Guides: Geological Engineering & Science: Technical Reports & Standards

What is a Technical Report?

Technical reports describe the process, progress, or results of technical or scientific research. They include in-depth experimental details, data, and results.

Reasons to Use

Technical reports are usually produced to report on a specific research need. They can serve as a report of accountability to the organization funding the research. They provide access to the information before it is published elsewhere.

How to Write a Technical Report

Here are some resources that help explain what is usually included in a technical report and how to write them!

Search for Full-Text Standards at UNR

ASTM Compass
has created six types of standards that relate to manufacturing processes such as testing, materials classification and operation. The six types are test method, specification, classification, practice, guide and terminology standards.
IEEE Xplore/IET Electronic Library (IEL)
Includes full-text access to IEEE transactions, journals, magazines and conference proceedings published since 1988 and all current IEEE Standards.
SAE Mobilus
Produced by SAE International, this resource indexes e-books, technical papers, standards, and conference proceedings relating to mobility systems engineering in the aerospace, automotive, and commercial vehicle industries.

ASSIST Quick Search - Military Standards
Full text of most military and federal standards.
Everyspec
Full text of military and government standards.
International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T)
Full text of International Telecommunication Union's standards and recommendations.
Look in Library Search for Print ISO Standards
You can search the catalog for individual ISO standards that the library has purchased here.

Technical Report Resources

National Technical Reports Library (NTRL)
The National Technical Reports Library provides access to US Federal government technical reports in science and technology. It indexes about 2,000,000 reports and currently provides access to PDF copies of some 800,000 reports published since 1995. (More reports will be added, as pre-1995 reports are scanned.) Note that while access is free to the public, you must register with NTRL to gain access, and you may only download five reports per session. Also, free access is only available within the borders of the United States of America.
DTIC Online: Public Technical Reports
Citations to unclassified unlimited documents entered into the Defense Technical Information Center's Technical Reports Collection from 1974 to present. Also offers full text documents September 1998 to present. DTIC has many full text documents available. If full text is not available for a desired report, contact a librarian at DeLaMare Library. We would be happy to request a digitized copy for you.
NEPIS (National Environmental Publications Information System)
Provides full text access from a collection of over 7,000 archival and current documents published by the Environmental Protection Agency. Allows searching, viewing, and printing, including full images of all original pages and full-text. Includes documents that are no longer available in print form.

SciTech Connect
SciTech Connect is the merged DOE database that includes the Energy Citations Database and the DOE Information Bridge Database. Energy Citations Database originally was developed and designed by the United States Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI). It contains over 2.4 million citations from 1948 to the present and includes bibliographic records from Nuclear Science Abstracts (NSA) and Energy Science and Technology Database (EDB). The database provides links to the full text for many recent publications. Information in the database is provided by DOE and its predecessor agencies, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA); other government agencies and professional societies.
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Access to NASA's technical literature, with scientific and technical information from select external sources. NTRS provides access to aerospace-related citations, full-text online documents, images, and videos.
TRID (Transport Research International Documentation)
A database provided by the Transportation Research Board - one of the seven program units of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Includes abstracts and some full-text content of transportation research published worldwide.

What is a Standard?

Standards and their development frame, guide, and normalize almost all areas of our lives. For example, standards in IT govern interoperability between a variety of digital devices and platforms, standardized production of various machine parts allows uniform repair and reproduction. Standardization in fields like accounting, health care, or agriculture promotes best industry practices that emphasize safety and quality control.

Standards reflect the shared values, aspirations, and responsibilities we as a society project upon each other and our world. Keeping informed about the most current standards can drive innovation and increase the market value of an engineer’s research and design efforts as well as promoting international trade and commerce, which then fuels more innovation.

Watch: International Standards Organization's What Standards Do For You
Explore: American National Standards Institute's An Introduction to Standards
- This course is designed as a basic introduction to standards for management and technical personnel in business, industry association management, government, and public policy; university faculty and students; engineers, quality control and purchasing staff; consumers; and those new to organizations that develop standards.

Types of Standards:

Product-/Design-Based Standards
- Examples: ISO film speed code; banking and telephone cards
Performance-Based Standards
- Examples: Safety of wire ropes; safety of toys
Management System Standards
- Examples: ISO 9000 Quality and Environmental Management Systems
Personnel Certification Standards
- Examples: Financial planners

Reasons to Use Standards

Standards allow technology to work seamlessly and establish trust so that markets can operate smoothly. They:

provide a common language to measure and evaluate performance
make interoperability of components made by different companies possible
protect consumers by ensuring safety, durability, and market equity

(From NIST)