STI Product Factsheets for DOE Laboratory Researchers:

Technical or Workshop Report

ABOUT STI

In the course of performing research and development (R&D) and other scientific and technological work, researchers funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) produce scientific and technical information (STI) to document and disseminate their findings.

STI includes products such as journal articles, technical reports, conference presentations, books, and more. Through the Scientific and Technical Information Program (STIP), the DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) collaborates with people across the DOE complex, including Headquarters programs, field offices, national laboratories, and other facilities. The STIP partnership ensures that the results of DOE- funded work are identified, disseminated, and preserved. Thus, OSTI collects STI produced across the DOE laboratory and facility complex as well as from financial assistance recipients.

DEFINITION

A technical report (or scientific report) is a document that describes the process, progress, or results of research and development or other scientific and technological work, including recommendations or conclusions of the research and such information as the original hypotheses, approaches used, and findings. Facts, figures, analyses, and assumptions used during the life of the project to support the results are used to convey to the scientific community the findings during the project. Technical reports are an important source of STI derived from research projects sponsored by DOE and may include more comprehensive or in-depth experimental details than scholarly papers or presentations can. Workshop reports are similar in format, but the content is derived from a workshop, conference, or similar venue which focuses on a specific scientific or technical problem or topic. The workshop report may summarize various papers and presentations or give a synopsis of the topics addressed during the meeting. As a DOE STI product, a workshop report is typically prepared by a research organization (e.g., a lab or a university) as requested by a DOE program or subprogram to address a certain research topic.

SUBMISSIONS

Each DOE laboratory has a site program to manage scientific and technical information produced under the contract and to make it available to DOE's Office of Scientific and Technical Information. Each site's STI Manager is involved in the process; for more information, see the listing of STI Managers at https://www.osti.gov/stip/about/stip-community#STIManagers.

Using a Lab's processes for STI submission, the researcher provides metadata for a technical report or workshop report as well as a full-text document in searchable PDF format or a link to the document hosted on the institutional repository, if it is publicly accessible. Technical reports with any type of access restriction must also be submitted to OSTI.