🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <58199@dime.cs.umass.edu> connolly@rabbit.cs.umass.edu (Christopher Ian Connolly) writes:
>In article <103479@netnews.upenn.edu> sarkar@tuna.cis.upenn.edu (Nilanjan Sarkar) writes:
>>	I need to locate a technical report from Robotics Institute, CMU
>>which has been suggested by a reviewer of my paper. 
>
>In other fields, technical reports are considered "inaccessible",
>hence not fair game for citation.  This is a case in point, where the
>author is having a hard time tracking the thing down.  If the idea is
>really worth citing, then it should have been published in a more
>accessible form.  At the very least, the reviewer should have
>suggested a more solid reference.


I disagree.

First of all, our university library has many technical reports from
other universities, as they are considered appropriate for citation.

Second, it is always possible to obtain a copy of a technical report
at no cost, simply by contacting the department and university directly.
This is no more difficult then trying to locate a book or journal that
your own library does not have.  In addition, tech reports can be retrieved
through inter-library loans.

Tech reports often have useful information that will never be found in
published journals.  Due to the length restrictions in all journals and
conference proceedings, the published work is often only a summary of
a more complete technical report.  For someone who needs all the data,
graphs, detailed algorithms, etc., then it may be necessary to go
beyond the published work, and to look at the tech report.

A tech report is often used for pre-published material.  Because of the
significant lag for publication (as much as 3 years in some journals),
tech reports can be used to publicize a group's work.  However, since
a tech report may  not of had any peer review, the person reading the
tech report must perform the review themselves, before they can accept
or reject the work in question.

~dave

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David B. Stewart  - email: <dstewart@cmu.edu>            The Robotics Institute
snail mail:       - ECE Dept., Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
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