Grey Literature is produced by governments, academics, and businesses, and it is not controlled by commercial publishers. Grey literature has not gone through the peer-review process. These sources included: theses and dissertations, conference papers and proceedings, research reports, government documents, technical notes and specifications, proposals, data compilations, clinical trials, etc. As you can probably guess, these items are sometimes really difficult to obtain.
Why use it? If you have a topic that doesn't have much peer-reviewed scholarship it could prove useful.
Research reports contain the results of research projects, investigations, and surveys, and are usually published by the funder or the body undertaking the research. You can also locate these in Galileo by limiting the Type to Reports. Most of these documents are houses in ERIC.
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Conference papers and proceedings can be challenging to find because they may take several years to be published or may not be published at all. They can be published in various formats including books, abstracts, and journal articles; and, they may be deposited only in an author or institutional repository.
Some Library databases, like ProQuest, make it easier to search for these types of documents by allowing you to limit your search to Source type.
Government documents are an important primary source of information on a wide range of issues. Most government documents can be found through government websites.
USA.gov is the official web portal for the U.S. government. The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) is another useful gateway to locating published government documents.
Conference papers and proceedings can be challenging to find because they may take several years to be published or may not be published at all. They can be published in various formats including books, abstracts, and journal articles; and, they may be deposited only in an author or institutional repository.
Some Library databases, like ProQuest, make it easier to search for these types of documents by allowing you to limit your search to Source type.
