Grey literature

Broadly, the term grey literature relates to material that is published by non-commercial publishers and distributed outside the usual commercial distribution channels. It constitutes an important part of primary literature which can be difficult to track down.

Government reports, pamphlets or press releases; briefing papers issued by research centres or charities; project websites and technical standards all fall under this category. One of the major challenges to librarians and researchers is the ephemeral nature of this material: unless the authoring institution ensures continuity of access (e.g. via its website) these documents quickly disappear from view following their initial publication.

Here are some databases which are particularly useful for locating grey literature:

National Archives

Non-current government publications can be searched for on the National Archives catalogues, including reports, websites, videos and Twitter posts.

British Library

The BL holds an extensive collection of reports and official government materials. You can search specifically for these material types using the advanced search option on the main BL catalogue.

HMIC database

Includes grey literature published from 1979. Available through FindIt.

NHS Evidence

Updated weekly, NHS Evidence holds information from a wide range of sources. There is a list of all the indexed sources available on the NHS Evidence website.

Social Care Online

Social Care Online collects resources published by academic institutions, research organisations, government departments, local government and the voluntary sector, across defined subject areas.

Childlink

Childlink provides information published in the UK, the Republic of Ireland and across Europe on children, young people and families, including news articles and press releases by government departments, statutory agencies and other various media sources.

Grey Literature Database

Lists grey literature collected at the New York Academy of Medicine library. Covers health policy, public health, aspects of general medicine. The library issues a bi-monthly report with new acquisitions of grey literature.

Open Grey

Multidisciplinary database – there are no details available on currency or coverage.

Institutional Repository Search

As the name would suggest, this database searches across 130 UK institutional repositories. For a global search try OpenDOAR.

Core

This site aggregates open access content from research repositories internationally.

Trip

A clinical database comprising research papers as well as patient leaflets, videos and other resources.