ABSTRACT
A report is usually issued as one of a series and commonly carries a report number which identifies both the report and the producing, disseminating or sponsoring organization.' Reports on special investigations, for example of aircraft or industrial accidents, will have a considerable technical content. Resumes of legal proceedings are valuable to lawyers, and doctors are inundated with publicity reports on the products of pharmaceutical manufacturers. Many of the specializations have established information organizations which digest the material, which is often very bulky, and produce reports which are in effect abstract bulletins of whose existence only those immediately concerned are aware. Theses submitted to universities in support of applications for higher degrees form a borderline class of unpublished technical reports since on the one hand the regulations often require that they should be published in deference to the universities' endeavours to make their work generally available.
