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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.

Grey Literature

definition of grey literature: “…information produced on all levels of government, academia, business and industry in electronic and print formats not controlled by commercial publishing i.e. where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body.”

Schnopfel J. (2010). Towards a Prague definition of grey literature

Grey literature:

  • is not widely disseminated
  • is difficult to find
  • may contain more information as there aren't publication length stipulations 
  • can be produced and disseminated much faster than published literature
  • is less expensive to access than traditional closed-access literature
  • may not go through as rigorous of a peer review process
  • is often not archived

Why Include Grey Literature?

Gey literature completes the picture of research on a particular topic. It is an important source for:

  • recent results, data, and statistics
  • counteracting publication lag (results may show up in conference proceedings months or years before they show up in peer-reviewed journals)
  • mitigating positive result bias in your review of published literature

What Does Grey Literature Look Like?

There are many document types that are considered grey literature, including:

  • policies or procedures documents
  • guidelines
  • conference proceedings, papers or posters
  • dissertations and theses
  • clinical trials
  • leaflets and factsheets
Subjects: Grey Literature