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Grey Literature

What is grey literature?

Grey literature is generally described as material “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". (4th International Conference on Grey Literature, Washington DC, 1999)

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Grey literature examples: White literature examples:
  • research reports
  • clinical trials
  • standards
  • statistics
  • conference papers
  • maps
  • patents
  • policy documents
  • theses
  • journal articles
  • books
  • news articles
 Things to consider about grey literature:
  • it can provide more local information or alternative perspectives
  • it can be more current than formally published research literature
  • it can be more difficult to find
  • its quality can vary