Reports to the publishers of Time and books form the nucleus of the John Scott Papers. Of the reports, the collection includes material on five -- Asian Journey, East of Suez, The Middle East at War, The New Europe, and The Soviet Economic Offensive. In addition, there are materials on two volumes, Democracy Is Not Enough and Political Warfare, which although written primarily for outside readership, were substantially based upon his Time reporting. Because of this relationship, the volumes and the reports have been filed together chronologically.

The type of documentation present varies for each title, but in each case the material is presented in the order produced. For Democracy Is Not Enough, the material is most extensive; included are research files and notes, outlines, preliminary chapters and fragments, rejected materials, three complete drafts, and correspondence to and from Julie Fay Treloar, his research assistant. For The New Europe there are two complete drafts; a folder of miscellaneous chapters, fragments, and revised outlines; and a copy of the report in its final, near-print form. Political Warfare is documented by a complete manuscript draft. Four reports -- Asian Journey, East of Suez, The Middle East at War, and The Soviet Economic Offensive -- are represented only in their final form. The first two titles are incorporated in the preliminary chapter drafts of Democracy Is Not Enough.

Also part of the collection are two speeches, which are only a sample of the over 200 talks based on his research which Scott delivered each year.