Research Guides: Grey Literature in the Health Sciences: About Grey Literature

Guide to Grey Literature

Grey Literature is:

"That which is produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in print and electronic formats, but which is not controlled by commercial publishers."

-The Fourth International Conference on Grey Literature in Washington, DC 1999

This guide provides resources and strategies for finding and using Grey Literature in health science research.
Click on the tabs (and subtabs) above to navigate the guide.
Contact a Lister Hill Librarian for assistance.

Types of Grey Literature

Blogs
Census, economic and other data sources
Conference proceedings and abstracts
Databases of ongoing research
Electronic networks (Listserv archives, etc.)
Informal communications (phone conversations, email, meetings, etc.)
Newsletters
Preprints of e-journal articles
Registered clinical trials
Research reports (completed and uncompleted)
Technical reports
Theses and Dissertations
White papers

Grey Literature Overview

This video presentation(3:00) introduces Grey Literature.

Please Note!

The inclusion of grey literature and unpublished reports in literature reviews is encouraged, particularly in certain topic areas such as public health. However, as with any other study reports, it is necessary to critically evaluate grey literature materials for the authority of the source, any potential for bias, reliability and reproducibility of study methodology and completeness of reporting. (See also the University of Louisville's research guide on "Evaluating Information Sources" at http://masters.libguides.com/evaluation.)

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