How to identify and use scientific and technical reports?
Integrating grey literature into a scientific and technical watch

Scientific reports are interesting in that they usually contain the interim or final assessment of a research project. Such reports contain several strong points:

• state of the art (summary of research in this field) ;

• methodology ;

• results (much more detailed than in the articles);

• resources (bibliography, websites, tools, glossary, etc.).

In addition, they are often accompanied by an abstract and keywords, detailed information on authors and participants and, sometimes, additional material (data, recordings, plans, etc.).

The reports also provide information on priority research areas funded by funding agencies, regional authorities, the French government, the European Commission...