Since its inception in 1985, ISR has maintained a collection of research reports generated by its faculty and students. The reports are available to the general public free of charge in PDF format. These ISR Technical Reports are available on the University of Maryland's DRUM (Digital Repository at the University of Maryland) system.

Proceed to DRUM's ISR Technical Reports collection

Proceed to the general DRUM site

Although the DRUM interface does not mention this, it is important to use Boolean search terms in both the search and advance search windows. Learn about Boolean search terms.

Note that the searches do not return results in any particular order, not alphabetical, not relevance, not recency. Very general searches will produce a large number of results which you will have to wade through. [For those accustomed to Google, this is important to note.]

The same author may have multiple listings, depending whether full first and/or middle names or combinations of initials were used as identifiers. It is best to use the "browse/authors" feature on the left menu bar to call up all possible papers by an author.

The advanced search feature allows for a more powerful and specific search. Note that if you want to search only the ISR Technical Reports collection, you will need to scroll down the menu to "Institute for Systems Research" from the "All of DRUM" default.

It may be fruitful to search the general DRUM site and not just the ISR Technical Reports collection. In addition to MS and PhD theses catalogued by the legacy ISR Technical Reports system (1985-2007) DRUM also contains theses that never were entered into our system. Also, some ISR faculty have catalogued their work under other departments and units rather than ISR.

Starting at DRUM's login page, log in using your university ID and password. You will be directed to the submissions page.

Click on "start a new submission" to begin the submission process. ALSO NOTE that from this page you can choose something called "subscriptions," which enables you to receive an email every time a new ISR Technical Report comes online.

The submissions process is quite intuitive. On the initial screen, you will be asked to choose in which collection(s) you would like your Technical Report to appear. Chooose ISR and any other units with which you are affiliated, and continue to the next screen.

The first "describe your item" screen is somewhat confusing. You do not NEED to choose any of the selections offered if none of them apply. Simply go to the next screen if this is the case.

On the second "describe your item" screen you will fill in the information about your report, such as the authors and title, and the type of content you are submitting. NOTE that DRUM asks you for a date of issue, a series and report number and other identifiers. If you have such things, add them here. If you do not, you must at least enter a year in the year box for DRUM to proceed. Just enter whatever the current year is. When you get to "type" you will need to scroll down to "technical report" on the list and click to highlight it. Proceed to the next screen when you are through.

The third "describe your item" screen is the place to fill in keywords and phrases, your abstract, funding/sponsor information, and miscellaneous comments. Proceed to the next screen when you have completed this one.

On the "upload" screen you will choose the file you will be submitting as a technical report. Unlike the ISR legacy technical reports system, many types of files are supported, and PDF is the preferred format. View a list of supported file formats.

The "verify" screen gives you the opportunity to view everything you have entered and make corrections if necessary.

The "license" screen is where you grant DRUM the right to distribute your work as a technical report. After you complete this screen, the submission takes place and you will receive email notification of its progress as it goes online. You also may view progress on your "mydrum" page. You also can delete a pending submission there.

Revising technical reports that have already been published

DRUM does not provide an online way for users to revise their own tech reports once they have been published. The ISR tech reports administrator can do this for you, however. If you need to revise a tech report, email the tech reports administrator.

Proceed to DRUM's login page to submit a technical report

Proceed to DRUM's ISR Technical Reports site

Proceed to the general DRUM site


Top