LibGuides UFV: SOWK 225, Human Behaviour and the Social Environment: Grey Literature

Finding and Selecting Grey Literature

Why Grey Literature?

Grey literature completes the picture of research on a particular topic. Grey literature:

is often more current than traditionally published sources; results may show up in conference papers and conference proceedings or as preprints months or years before they show up in peer-reviewed journals;
offers coverage of emergent reseach and policy areas;
may be the best source of information on policies and programs; and
may include raw data and data sets not otherwise available.

What is 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, 2011)

Grey literature:

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

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

research reports
discussion papers, working papers, and white papers
conference proceedings, papers and posters
posters and infographics
leaflets and factsheets
newsletters
practice guidelines

Search Library Databases

Canada Commons
Canadian books and policy documents from governmental agencies, research institutes and university presses.
There are no contractual limits on the number of pages that may be printed. However, the number of pages per print command is set at 20 pages. It may be necessary to trigger the print command more than once. The number of pages per session that may be printed is set at 100 pages.
DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals
Thousands of free, quality-controlled scientific and scholarly journals from academic, government, commercial and non-profit organizations. International focus; all languages.
OAIster
A union catalog of digital resources from open archive collections all over the world, which are often not revealed by search engines such as Google. Available resources include digitizations of books, papers, reports, theses, images, videos, and more, as well as bibliographic citations to journal articles and research material, which is provided in multiple languages.
Open Access Theses and Dissertations
An index to open access graduate theses and dissertations from over 1000 colleges and universities.
ProQuest Open Theses
Open access dissertations and theses made available by ProQuest.

Search the Open Web

Before You Start

Before starting your online search, consider:

What kinds of information are you looking for?
- theses and dissertations?
- conference posters, papers, or proceedings?
- government reports?
Who would publish this type of information?
- government?
- advocacy groups?
- academia?
- industry?
Do you have limits in your criteria for inclusion?
- preferred publication date(s)?
- preferred geographic region(s)?
- preferred language(s)?

Search Tips

A thorough grey literature search should involve a general sweep of the internet. Some tips for web searching are:

restrict content to specific types of organizations
- Government: .gov.bc.ca (BC), .gc.ca (Canada), .gov (US)
- NGOs: .org
- enter your topic and then site:[type]: topic site:gov.bc.ca
- use OR to search more than one type of organization at a time: site:gov.bc.ca OR site:gc.ca OR site:org
restrict content to specific types of files
- type in your topic and then add filetype:[type]: topic filetype:pdf
- use OR to search more than one type of file at a time: filetype:pdf OR filetype:doc OR filetype:docx
use search engines in addition to Google, such as:
- Bing
- Duck Duck Go (does not record location or user searches)

How to Evaluate Grey Literature

Because grey literature may not employ traditional methods of quality control, such as peer or editorial review, it is important to evaluate the quality of the information you find and select. One tool - the AACODS Checklist (Tyndall, 2010) - was designed specifically for evaluating grey literature.

Authority	Who is responsible for the content?	Reputable organization? Professional qualifications or experience? Identified in other sources as expert? Cited by others?
Accuracy	Is the content clear and consistent?	Clearly stated and demonstrated aim or belief? Peer reviewed or edited by reputable authority? Supported by authoritative, documented references or credible sources? Data collection explicit and appropriate for the purpose? Accurate, unbiased interpretation or analysis?
Coverage	What is the scope?	Are limits of the research/analysis clearly stated? Population group Types of publications included in analysis Underlying question(s) Underlying data source(s)
Objectivity	What are the underlying biases (stated or unstated)?	Author’s standpoint clear? Balanced in presentation?
Date	How current is the content?	Clearly stated date? If no date, can it be ascertained? Key contemporary material included in bibliography?
Significance	Is the resource meaningful, representative, or impactful?	Adds context? Enriches or adds something unique to existing research? Strengthens or refutes a current position? Integral, representative, typical? Has impact?