These videos come from other academic institutions but are relevant to give a quick introduction to what grey literature is and what tools to use to critically evaluate the information you find.
“…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. Towards a Prague definition of grey literature. Presented at: Twelfth International Conference on Grey Literature: Transparency in Grey Literature. Grey Tech Approaches to High Tech Issues. Prague, 6-7 Dec 2010, Czech Republic. pp.11-26. Available from: http://archivesic.ccsd.cnrs.fr/sic_00581570/document
In the health sciences, grey literature is crucial in completing the picture of research on a particular topic. Grey literature can be an important source for:
How is grey literature different than traditional published literature?
Grey Literature can be found in many different forms including:
In order to be successful at finding grey literature it is recommended you narrow down the focus of your search. Some things you should think about before beginning your search for grey literature are:
Finding grey literature can often be a daunting task. If you are having trouble figuring out who might be producing the information you are interested in, the below links will provide information on a number of organizations that produce grey literature.
A thorough grey literature search should involve a general sweep of the web by using different search engines. Google is an important search engine but others such as Yahoo and Bing could be looked at. Some tips for web searching are: