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Finding Grey Literature

Start your Grey Literature search with this guide containing resources and strategies for discovering research produced outside traditional commercial or academic publishing channels.

How to Evaluate Grey Literature

The AACODS checklist was created by Jess Tyndall to evaluate and enable critical appraisal of grey literature. This checklist has the flexibility to be applied to a number of grey literature resources.

AACODS (Authority, Accuracy, Coverage, Objectivity, Date, Significance)

  • Authority: Who is responsible for the content and are they credible?
  • Accuracy: Is the document supported by credible, authoritative sources?
  • Coverage: Does the document clearly state parameters that define their content coverage?
  • Objectivity: Is there bias? Is it easily detected?
  • Date: Can you find the date? For the content to inform your research it must have a date to confirm relevance
  • Significance: Does the document add something unique to the research?
Subjects: Grey Literature