Source types: arts: 4. Grey literature

A definition of grey literature is, a source that is “produced on all levels of government, academia, business, and industry in electronic and print formats…not controlled by commercial publishers; i.e. where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body" (Lawrence et al., 2015, p. 230).

Examples of grey literature include: 

• conference proceedings 
• theses 
• pre-prints 
• white papers 
• blogs 
• policy documents
• reports by governments, industry, or businesses

Adapted from: University of Leeds, University of Waterloo OLOR.

Citation from: Lawrence, A., Thomas, J., Houghton, J., & Weldon, P. (2015). Collecting the Evidence: Improving Access to Grey Literature and Data for Public Policy and Practice. Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 46(4), 229-249.

Depending on what source you are searching for, you will have to look in various different areas to locate grey literature. These locations may include theses or preprint repositories, government websites, university or company webpages, conference websites, or even general Google searches. You may find the following University of Waterloo documents and guides helpful for locating grey literature:

• UW Space, is the thesis repository for University of Waterloo graduates.
• University of Waterloo Guide to Government Information, is a great starting point to find various government documents.

Example of Grey Literature by the University of Waterloo, is the White Paper: Measuring Research Output Through Bibliometrics, published in the UW Space in 2016. 

When using grey literature, it is important to be aware that this literature is not commercially published or peer reviewed. You must therefore engage your critical thinking skills to identify the quality of information you are reading, by asking yourself guiding questions to evaluate the source. Examples of these questions may include:

• Is the information biased?
• Is there any reason why a company or institution would want to release this information? 
• What are the parameters of your assignment, and do they allow for grey literature to be used?
• How does grey literature contribute to your assignment? Could you justify this?

When in doubt, you can always ask your professor, a subject specific librarian, or the AskUs feature of the University of Waterloo Library for help and guidance on using grey literature.

Adapted from: The University of Leeds.

When citing diverse types of sources, such as grey literature, it is important to find style guides that accurately cite these sources. When in doubt, ask a librarian for subject specific help, or general help through the AskUs feature of the University of Waterloo Library website. Or, use the University of Waterloo Library Citation Guide, or University of Waterloo Citation Software Guide for further information. 

Useful module created by the University of Waterloo and held within the Online Learning Object Repository (OLOR):

• Waterloo's OLOR for Grey Literature