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GAO Reports: Search TipsGPO 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.
Fielded Searches | Report Series Abbreviations | Sample Searches | Identification Codes Fielded SearchesFielded 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:
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 AbbreviationsBeginning 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 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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Identification CodesIn 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.
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