Grey Ebooks
Boyan Atanaschev
My name's Julie and I've been running this site for around twelve years. I format all the ebooks myself, as well as maintaining the website. This is an ongoing project that was born from a love of reading and a commitment to make free ebooks that look good.
Help me continue giving free literature to all by either making a donation (one-off or monthly), or by purchasing the entire collection. Without the financial help of people like yourself, this site wouldn't be able to continue running.
We have listed a few grey literature sources in your field to get you started including websites, statistics and more generally, tips to searching Google and Google Scholar. However, there could be many more useful and high-quality resources available.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
The most comprehensive source of Australian statistical information is published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Australia's official statistical organisation. Access to ABS publications including year books, time series data and tables, metadata, economic models, 1996 and 2001 Census Basic Community Profiles are provided online.
World Development Indicators Online
World Bank describes the data as: "WDI Online offers the World Bank's comprehensive database on development data, covering more than 600 indicators, 208 countries, and 18 regional and income groups. The development data includes social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators for more than forty years (1960 to 2004, where data are available).
Google and Google Scholar are particularly useful when searching for grey literature, e.g. organisational reports, working papers, government reports and information, statistics, conference papers, patents, blogs, webpages etc.
Google Scholar is a search engine for a variety of scholarly and grey literature - however Google Scholar has a broad scope, does not distinguish between peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed sources and the algorithm can bias the results that are shown to you. Take a look at our evaluating information webpage to help you check the quality of resources.
You can get the most out of search engines like Google and Google Scholar by asking your questions in the right way. You will usually find help pages, FAQs, or guides to searching on individual search engine homepages. But here are some common tips to keep in mind:
If you are going to use Google Scholar in your searching, please follow our instructions to Connect your Google Scholar with Deakin Library, this will allow the Find it @ Deakin button to appear in your search results so you can go directly to the article full-text (PDF).
Google advanced search is a useful resource when looking for grey literature and allows you to build more focussed searches than using Google. This self-paced tutorial will help you learn how to build effective searches using Google Advanced Search.
Research and education institutions produce and preserve theses, conference papers, reports, and other kinds of grey literature. Many of these repositories are open access resources that you can use to find information.
Academics and researchers tend to put most trust in information that has gone through the peer-review process. This kind of literature is often referred to as "black literature". The term "grey literature" comes from the nebulous status of the information.
Grey literature is any literature that has not been published through traditional means. Grey literature may include reports, theses, conference proceedings, technical standards or government documents - essentially anything that is not created with commercial publication in mind.
Grey literature is often excluded from large databases and other mainstream searches so it can be hard to find. Leaving grey literature out of comprehensive literature searches excludes a major important section of the available research. To avoid bias and to ensure that that your literature review is as thorough as possible, always search for grey literature.
A thorough grey literature search should involve a general sweep of the web by using different search engines. Google is an important search engine but other search engines, such as Yahoo and Bing, could also be useful.
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Among other works, grey literature includes white papers, position statements, working papers, manuscripts, professional conference presentations, and various governmental and nongovernmental publications. Observers have referred to grey literature alternately as fugitive literature, non-conventional literature, and ephemeral publications.
Never published in "black and white" like scholarly articles or books, these texts often prove more difficult to locate, organize, and preserve. As a result, grey literature tends to be more elusive and ephemeral than traditional information resources.
Thanks to the efforts of government document librarians, public policy librarians, and other information professionals, the researcher now has at her disposal a range of grey literature finding aids, databases, and bibliographies. The following sections collect many of these resources.
Similarly, the authors of academic working papers, manuscripts, and conference presentations eventually may submit these texts for publication in refereed journals, but these works have not yet been appraised for quality. As a result, it may more difficult to determine the credibility of grey literature than it is for traditional academic publications. Under these conditions, authorial--individual, organizational, etc.--reputation tends to assume greater significance. The following resources address the question of credibility, especially as it concerns think tanks.
Put simply, grey literature is scholarly material that hasn't been peer reviewed and/or published, like government documents, white papers, student dissertations, or conference proceedings and minutes.
Even if an article or book chapter is eventually produced from grey literature, this by definition is a secondary source and the original works from which it is derived can contain information that is never included in the journal article.
Rather than waiting years for the publication of a revised edition, authors, editors, and content creators can update information when needed, a factor that reinforces the timeliness of grey literature.
Grey literature can be difficult to find as it is often missing important information and does not have any central or organised publishing, thus a search will involve seeking out this information across many websites, repositories, and databases.
University of Glasgow Specific search - Will show the details of the holding at the University. This allows you to search databases you will have access to as well as other types of collections the university has.
WorldCat - The world's largest network of library content and services. Content includes documents and photos of local or historic significance and digital versions of rare items that aren't available to the public.
GreyNet International - GreyNet focusses on Research, Publication, Open Access, and Education in the field of Grey Literature. Includes the resources Grey Source, The Grey Journal, and many other resources on the subject of grey literature.
OpenGrey - Previously known as OpenSIGLE, this is a multi-disciplinary collection of Grey lit produced in Europe. Includes technical/research reports, doctoral dissertations, conference papers and official publications.
ClinicalTrials.gov is a registry and results database of publicly and privately supported clinical studies of human participants conducted around the world. Part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Cochrane Library - Collection of six databases that contain different types of high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making plus reviews, trials, studies, podcasts and more.
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) - Independent organisation providing national guidance on promoting good health / preventing ill health. NICE produce clinical guidance on Public Health, Health Technologies and Clinical Practice.
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