Types of Publications

Cooperative Extension Service Publications

Extension guides

Guides are free-distribution publications, designed to be brief, single concept pieces that can be updated frequently. They are generally written for a non-technical, lay audience.

Extension circulars

Circulars also are distributed for free, but they present more stable content and have a higher production value than guides.

Annual data reports

Annual data reports contain the results of yearly insect censuses, economic cost-and-return analyses, or other data collection. They make available to producers, agents, and specialists quantitative information that has not yet been compiled into a larger study.

Agricultural Experiment Station Publications

Research reports

Research reports cover findings from a study with a single objective. Publication in a research report does not preclude use of the material in a more comprehensive report, such as a research bulletin. If the material is used again, however, it should be summarized or incorporated with other data, rather than repeated in its entirety.

Research bulletins

Research bulletins report methodology, results, and conclusions of completed research endeavors. In general, bulletins are reserved for publications of high-quality, definitive research findings from several years of work or from several separate but related objectives.

Technical reports

A technical report puts research conducted by the author into a practical context for a technically capable but nonacademic audience.

Task force reports

Task force reports are free-distribution publications that report commissioned studies or the efforts undertaken by interdisciplinary task forces.

NOTE: All publications listed above are posted to the Web in color and printed in black and white.

Policies for Web-Only Publications

All Extension and Experiment Station numbered publications produced since February 2002 are available on the Web as PDFs. The policies below apply to non-numbered, Web-only publications, which are never printed.

With administrative approval, some research results, such as those from annual variety trials, may be officially reported in non-numbered Web-only publications.

In such cases, the author must provide administrative approval and a digital file of the manuscript. Depending on how quickly the publication needs to be posted, the author may choose to provide an electronic file of the text laid out exactly as it should appear in the PDF.

As with any other publication, prior to submitting to the publishing group, authors must have their manuscripts reviewed and approved according to Extension and Experiment Station policies. Extension authors should contact their department heads. Experiment Station authors should contact Steve Loring, assistant director of AES.