Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS), 1957-1994

Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS), 1957-1994, released by Readex (a division of NewsBank) in 2011, is an English-language archive of translations of foreign scientific, technical, and social science materials. Produced by the U.S. Joint Publications Research Service, a government agency that translates a range of foreign-language materials, JPRS includes monographs, reports, serials, journal and newspaper articles, and radio and television broadcasts from around the world. JPRS is also the largest single producer of English language translations in the world and has generated four million pages from more than 130,000 reports.

With a focus on communist and developing countries, Joint Publications Research Service (JPRS), 1957-1994 is also a complement to and cross-searchable with the digital edition of Foreign Broadcast Information (FBIS) Daily Reports, 1974-1996.

JPRS was established in March 1957 as part of the United States Department of Commerce’s Office of Technical Services, about six months before the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1. Acting as a unit within the Central Intelligence Agency, JPRS staffers prepared translations for the use of U.S. Government officials, various agencies, and the research and industrial communities. During the Cold War, the reports were primarily translations rather than analysis or commentary, with an emphasis on scientific and technical topics. Over time, however, that scope expanded to cover environmental concerns, world health issues, nuclear proliferation, and more.

JPRS organizes its materials into the following categories:

• Countries and political entities
• Article types
• Report types
• Subjects
• JPRS series

Within each of these sections, it is possible to refine results further to sources such as speeches, news briefs, and conference proceedings, and many others.

Sources

Four million pages have been scanned from more than 130,000 reports; according to Readex, few organizations outside the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and Library of Congress have the complete sets of the reports in microform.