Political Science (UNH Durham)

Grey literature is material of a scholarly nature produced outside the usual publication channels such as peer-reviewed journals; it is generally not commercially published (Example). Grey literature can include

• government publications
• think tank reports
• working papers
• conference proceedings
• studies from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) or intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)
• publications from charitable or non-profit organizations
• evaluation reports
• technical reports
• theses and dissertations
• preprints
• digital libraries or repositories
• spatial data

Grey literature can be harder to identify and find because it often isn't formally published or indexed in the databases used to find scholarly literature.

Some specialized databases may include some grey literature; for example

Other strategies to help identify grey literature include:

• check lists of references in books or articles
• identify likely producers of grey literature (think tanks, government agencies, NGOs, etc.)
  • Look for Resources, Publications, Reports, Data or similar categories on agency or organization websites
• identify experts in the topic and check their CVs for their publications, reports, conference talks, etc.
• search online - for example, limit Google searches to organization sites by including 'site:.org' (no quotes) in the search