1. Gray Literature Matters:
Locating Elusive and
Non-Traditional Research
Elizabeth Bucciarelli
Eastern Michigan University
Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters
Annual Conference
Alma College

2. What is Gray Literature
 Also called , ephemera, fringe, grey, or fugitive literature
 “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.” (3rd Int‟l Conf. on Grey Literature
, 1997) …i.e., “where publishing is not the primary
activity of the producing body.” (6th Int‟l Conf. on Grey
Literature , 2004)
 “body of materials that cannot be found easily through
conventional channels such as publishers, „but which is
frequently original and usually recent” (Hawkins, 2008)

3. What is Gray Literature
 “literature which is not readily available through
normal book selling channels, and therefore difficult
to identify and obtain” (Cordes, 2004)
 “gray literature-things like pamphlets, handouts, and all
the ephemera that usually wind up in the vertical or
circular file-is on the fringe, informal, unpublished, and
dare I say, invisible.” (Pace, 2002)

4. Characteristics of
Gray Literature
 Generally recognized as a way to distribute scientific and
technical information
 Publishers are considered corporate authors
 Lack editorial polish
 Incomplete work or mid-stage of development
 Raw data
 “white” literature finds an outlet in traditional publishing
venues
 Unorganized research

5. Characteristics of
Gray Literature
 Open and primary source of information
 Missing from subject bibliographies & indexes
 Distribution limited to small, targeted groups
 Difficult to obtain through conventional publishing
venues
 Universal and ubiquitous

6. Key Documents in Gray
Literature
 Conference proceedings
 Reports
 Doctoral dissertations & master‟s theses
 Other – legal tests, working papers, lecture notes, article
pre-prints

7. Other Formats of Gray
Literature
Booklets Working Papers
Timelines
Statistical Surveys
Call for Papers
Interviews Leaflets
Orations
Technical Notes
Inaugural Lectures
Scientific Protocols
White Papers
Press Releases Brochures
Translations
Fact
Sheets Speeches
Newsletters Draft Reports
Compliance Reports
Patents
Yearbooks Web Pages

8. Importance of Gray Literature
 Provide extremely current data, up to 12-18 months
before an official publication
 Primary means of distributing scientific and technical
data
 Research results are often more detailed in the primary
source data/report
 Some conference proceedings, and research, up to 66%,
is never officially published
 Advances in the hard and medical sciences move quickly
and require a quick publishing process
 Publish more small trials or trials with negative results

9. Importance of Gray Literature
 Researchers build upon others‟ research, and therefore
have a great need for rapid access to cutting-edge
materials
 Much research generated in undeveloped countries, but
researchers cannot rely on commercial publishing
channels
 Researchers from undeveloped countries do not have
easy access to commercially published materials and
rely on gray literature to understand all sides of an issue

10. Problems with Gray Literature
 Lack of controlled vocabulary
 No single name or organization authority file
(ResearcherID.com)
 Language barriers, English materials dominate
 Not formally peer reviewed
 Ethical dilemmas, digital rights, and copyright
 Digital space needed to preserve digital collections
 Long-term archiving for print materials
 Electronic search engines and web crawlers cannot always
read the code in which these documents are written,
therefore they are not retrieved
 Many countries lack for systematic collection and access

15. Selective Access Points
for Gray Literature
 AcademyHealth - http://www.academyhealth.org/
 Agricola - http://agricola.nal.usda.gov/
 British Library -
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/atyourdesk/docsupply/collection/index.html
 CiteSeerX –
 http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/index;jsessionid=61B338A72E692C7B59C4968598C5603D
 Digital repositories
 Energy Citations Database - http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/
 *GreyNet International, Grey Literature Network Service -
http://www.greynet.org/
 inSPIRE – http://inspirehep.net/

16. Selective Access Points
for Gray Literature
 *Internet Archive Wayback Machine -
http://www.archive.org/
 Italian Grey Literature Database -
http://www.bice.rm.cnr.it/letteratura_grigia_inglese.ht
m
 National Technical Information Service (NTIS) -
http://www.ntis.gov/
 New York Academy of Medicine: Grey Literature Gray
Literature Report - http://www.nyam.org/library/online-
resources/
 *OpenDOAR - http://www.opendoar.org/
 OpenSIGLE – System for Information on Grey Literature in
Europe - http://www.greynet.org/opensiglerepository.html
 *Science.gov
 SCIRUS - http://www.scirus.com/

17. Selective Access Points
for Gray Literature
 STINET - http://www.stinet.org/links.htm
 Traditional
databases, e.g., WoS, Dissertations & Theses
Full Text from PQ
 U.S. Government: Technical Reports -
http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/govpubs/us/techre
p.htm
 U.S. Patent & Trademark Office -
http://www.uspto.gov/patents/process/search/
 Virtual Technical Reports Central -
http://www.lib.umd.edu/ENGIN/TechReports/Virtua
l-TechReports.html

18. Bibliography
 Anderson, Byron. (2001): “Grey literature and electronic publishing.” Behavioral & Social Sciences
Librarian, 19:2, 81-85.
 3rd International Conference on Grey Literature, Conference Proceedings, Luxembourg, 1997.
 6th International Conference on Grey Literature, Conference Proceedings, New York City, 2004.
 Cordes, Ruth. (2004): “Is grey literature ever used? Using citation analysis to measure the impact of
GESAMP, an international marine scientific advisory body.” Canadian Journal of Information and
Library Science, 28:1, 50-69.
 Hawkins, Donald T. (2008): “Gray literature: what's new on the information landscape.” Information
Today, 25:2, 27-8.
 Mathews, Brian S. (2004): “Gray literature: resources for locating unpublished research.” CR&L
News, 65:3, 125-128.
 Pace, Andrew. (2002): “Black, white, and shades of gray (literature) on the web.” Computers in
Libraries, 22:4, 44-47.
 Pappas, Cleo and Irene Williams. (2011): “Grey literature: its emerging importance.” Journal of
Hospital Librarianship, 11:3, 228-234.
 Schmidt, Karen, Wendy Allen Shelbourne, and David Steven Vess. “Approaches to selection, access,
and collection development in the web world: a case study with fugitive literature.” Library
Resources and Technical Services, 52:3, 184-191.
 Schopfel, Joachim & Dominic J. Farace. “Grey literature.” Encyclopedia of Library and Information
Sciences. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2010, 2029-2039.