Grey Literature: What is Grey Literature?

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Grey Literature

   "The Fourth International Conference on Grey Literature (GL '99) in Washington, DC, in October 1999 defined grey literature as : "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 ." including publications by individusla source: http://www.greylit.org/about

The following is a growing list of grey literature materials:

  • datasets
  • blogs
  • brochures/pamphlets
  • clinical trial source documents
  • course materials/syllabi
  • conference posters/ papers
  • newsletters
  • notebooks
  • manuals
  • satellite data
  • software
  • speeches
  • statistics
  • libguides
  • reports (pre-prints, preliminary progress and advanced reports, technical reports, statistical reports, memoranda, state-of-the art reports, market research reports, etc.),
  • theses
  • technical specifications and standards
  • non-commercial translations
  • bibliographies,
  • technical and commercial documentation,
  •  government reports and documents not published commercially.

Types of Grey Literature list: GreyNet provides a growing list of examples

The New York Academy of Medicine's Grey Literature Report (1999 - 2016) was one of the first initiatives to collect these type of materials at http://www.greylit.org/about .   As of January 2017, the Grey Literature Report website and database was discontinued and not updated, but is still accessible.

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