Technical reports are written by engineers/researchers about their designs, projects and other work. They are often more detailed than a journal article, but are not normally peer-reviewed. Technical reports can be good sources of practical information for using in your coursework and future employment. Reports from the USA are often easier to find that reports from the UK, particularly if the project was funded by the US government.
Here are some sources of technical reports:
Providing access to over 200,000 items of technical literature for the oil and gas exploration and production industry. Provided by the Society of Petroleum Engineers on behalf of 21 publishing partners. Content dating from 1885 to present.
Subject Coverage:
Engineering, Petroleum technology, Marine technology
Sources:
Book and eBooks, Conference papers, Journal articles (academic), Reports
Includes Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) Papers Online (covers publications from 1991 to 2005).
Full text availability:
This is a full text resource.
Osti.gov is the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technological Information. It searches DOE funded science, technology, and engineering research and is a useful resource for any energy or renewable-related projects.
Osti.gov includes "SciTech Connect" and the "Energy Citations Database", which can't be searched separately anymore.
Academics, researchers and professionals often present their research at conferences. This will usually be an oral presentation. However, there may be 'conference proceedings' which publish the written papers associated with the presentations. These are called conference papers. Conference papers are a good way to find out about current research, which may not yet have been published in a journal paper. Unlike journal papers, it is unlikely that the paper has been through a peer review process.
Many of our other journal databases, also include conferences: