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- report early results of research conducted at MIT
- are named series published by MIT's departments, labs, and centers (DLCs) or schools
- are considered "monographic series," because each issue in a series is a freestanding pub with a unique title
- are not peer-reviewed; so are considered a type of "gray literature" like pre-prints
- like pre-prints, often appear later subsequently as articles in peer-reviewed journals
- typically have series names containing the words "report," "technical report," or "working papers" (though not always)
- may contain issues that originated as MIT graduate theses
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