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GAO Reports: Search Tips

GPO signed a partnership agreement with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to provide permanent public access to the GAO Reports database on the GAO Web site. Under this agreement, GAO agrees to provide storage capacity and user access without restrictions on re-dissemination.

The GAO database on GPO Access is provided as an archive of the content as it was at the time the agreement was signed on September 19, 2008. For these and more recent reports, visit the GAO Reports database on the GAO Web site.

The following sample searches are provided as guides to popular types of searches in the GAO Reports databases. They are performed with a date range of 1/1/98 to 12/31/98 in order to narrow the search results. For the sake of space, only the top three or four hits in each results list are included with each example below.

Note: The results of these sample searches are described as they appear on the Web interface. The display of the results may vary for users of the WAIS client and SWAIS software.

Fielded Searches | Report Series Abbreviations | Sample Searches | Identification Codes

Fielded Searches

Fielded searches allow you to make your search more specific by limiting your results by pre-selected elements, such as report number, title, and date. The fields for the GAO Reports databases are as follows:

Report Number: Search for a report based on its number. Be sure to enclose the entire report number in quotation marks and to include all hyphens. This type of search is not case-sensitive. See Identification Codes below for more information about report numbers.

Report Title: Search for a report based on words or phrases from its title.

Topic Categories: Search for a report based on topic categories assigned by GAO. This type of search is narrower in scope than a full-text subject search.

Subject Terms: Search for a report based on references to countries, states, treaties, programs, and other named things that are relevant to the subject of the report.

Issue Date: Search for a report based on a date range or a specific date modified by the command "on," "before," or "after."

A list of the indexing terms assigned to the fields in each report is available at the beginning of each ASCII text file.

Report Series Abbreviations

Beginning with FY01, all issuing division or office information was removed from the report number. Report numbers now begin with "GAO."

Prior to FY01, report series abbreviations included the GAO division or office that performed the analysis for the report. For example, in the report number "RCED-99-47," "RCED" is the report series abbreviation, and it stands for "Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division." The report series abbreviations are as follows:

Sample Searches (5)

Subject | Report Number | Title | Topic Categories | Report Identifiers

1. Search by Subject

This type of search returns documents that are related to a specific subject. The word(s) that you enter as your search term(s) may appear anywhere within the document. Be sure to enter this type of query in the full-text search box.

Query:	"child care" OR "child abuse"
Alternative:	child ADJ (care OR abuse)
Results:	[HEHS-98-27] Welfare Reform: States' Efforts to Expand Child Care Programs
	[HEHS-98-109] Welfare Reform: States Are Restructuring Programs To Reduce
	[RCED-98-148] Welfare Reform: Changes Will Further Shape the Roles of

A full-text search differs considerably from a subject-terms search and thus returns a different results list. While a full-text search is conducted across all words in a report, a subject-terms search is restricted to predetermined subject categories that are assigned by GAO. See Search by Subject Terms below for a comparison.

2. Search by Report Number

This type of search returns documents based on report number. Each GAO report, correspondence, testimony, and special publication is assigned a report number. Prior to FY01, report numbers included the GAO division or office that performed the analysis (e.g. HEHS-00-198R). Since FY01, all issuing division or office information was removed from the report number. Report numbers now begin with GAO (e.g. GAO-03-168T). The report number should be enclosed in quotation marks and entered in the report-number search box. To identify all reports in a report series, enter only the initial letters of the report number (e.g., HEHS) in the report-number search box.

Query:	"HEHS-98-232"
Results:	[HEHS-98-232] Elementary and Secondary Education: Flexibility Initiatives Do

Note: GAO control numbers (e.g., B-256567) are not searchable in the report number field. However, a control number does appear on the cover letter that accompanies each report and, therefore, can be used as a query in the full-text search box.

3. Search by Title

This type of search returns documents based on words or phrases from their titles. Be sure to enter a title query in the search box; if title words are entered in the full-text search box, the documents that are returned may contain the query terms not only in their titles but also elsewhere in the text.

Query:	"financial management"
Results:	[AIMD-98-34] Financial Management: Profile of Financial Personnel in Large
	[AIMD-98-268] Financial Management: Federal Financial Management
	[T-AIMD-98-215] Financial Management: Fostering the Effective Implementation

4. Search by Topic Categories

This type of search returns documents based on predetermined subject categories that are assigned by GAO. Be sure to enter a query for subject terms in the appropriate search box.

Query:	"child care" OR "child abuse"
Alternative:	child ADJ (care OR abuse)
Results:	[HEHS-98-27] Welfare Reform: States' Efforts to Expand Child Care Programs
	[T-HEHS-98-148] Child Care: States' Efforts to Expand Programs Under Welfare
	[T-HEHS-98-183] Head Start: Challenges Faced in Demonstrating Program

If you are unable to find a specific report using this type of search, you may expand your results list for a given subject by entering the same query in the full-text search box. See Search by Subject above for a comparison.

Note: The subject terms assigned to a report are listed at the beginning of each ASCII text file.

5. Search by Report Identifiers

This type of search returns documents based on predetermined subject terms that are assigned by GAO. Be sure to enter a query for subject terms in the subject terms search box.

Query:	Maryland
Results:	[T-HEHS-98-148] Child Care: States' Efforts to Expand Programs Under Welfare
	[HEHS-98-27] Welfare Reform: States' Efforts to Expand Child Care Programs
	[HEHS-99-8] Child Welfare: Early Experiences Implementing a Managed Care

Note: The subject terms assigned to a report are listed at the beginning of each ASCII text file.

Identification Codes

In the list that displays your query results, the title of each GAO Reports document is preceded by an identification code. The identification code is equivalent to the report number. For example, in the listing "[RCED-99-47] National Forests: Funding the Sawtooth National Recreation Area," "RCED-99-47" is the report number, and "National Forests: Funding the Sawtooth National Recreation Area" is the title. Prior to FY01, report numbers include a report series abbreviation, which indicates the GAO division or office that performed the analysis. In the above example, the abbreviation "RCED" indicates that the Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division of GAO prepared the analysis for the report. Identification codes in the GAO Reports databases are searchable; see Search by Report Number above for more information.

Note: Report numbers that end in “R” are correspondence reports (e.g. HEHS-00-198R). These are narrower in scope, of more limited interest, and without recommendations. Report numbers that end in “T” indicate testimony (e.g. GAO-02-833T).

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Last updated: December 9, 2008
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