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Grey Literature: Uncovering Elusive Material
February 16, 2012
Which of the following is NOT considered as “grey literature”?
Questions?
• Thoughts to share at this moment?
Session Outline
• What is Grey Literature? definition & features
• Types of Grey Literature• Impact of Grey Literature in Health
Research• Examples of Sources of Grey Literature
Uncovering Elusive Material: Grey Literature Defined
Grey literature has been defined as:
• ”the information and resources that do not categorically fall into what is available via standard traditional or commercial publishing channels.” From: International Journal on Grey 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." (New frontiers in grey literature: Fourth International Conference on Grey Literature: GL'99 proceedings;1999 Oct 4-5; Washington, D.C. Amsterdam: GreyNet; 1999.)
• “virtually everything we read outside of journals and books can be considered grey literature.”
(Coonin, B. Grey Literature: An annotated bibliography. 2003: Available at http://personal.ecu.edu/cooninb/Greyliterature.htm)
Grey Literature: Features
• Rapid publication - current• Variable formats (flexible)• Detailed• Most not peer reviewed• No commercial source• Limited distribution in a geographic area • Free (in most cases)• Information on non main-stream
topics/aspects
Open Access Repositories
Types of Grey Literature
• Theses and dissertations• Conference proceedings• Newsletters• Reports• Government documents• Informational communication (telephone
calls, meetings, e-mail, blogs, interviews, social networking sites, etc.)
A Fact, not Just One
• In June 2001 a 24 year old female volunteer died in a research study at the US based Johns Hopkins University Asthma and Allergy Center in Baltimore, Maryland. No distinct cause for death was identified but weakness in the process of literature review for the risk of the non-FDA approved use of hexamethonium was noted.
Source: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press/2001/JULY/010716.htm
Grey Literature in the Health Sciences
• As a primary source of information, grey literature was cited in the medical journals that provided reliable data on research in progress. (Alberani, et. al., 1990)
• Technical reports prevailed over other types of grey literature. (Alberani, et. Al., 1990)
• Expert searching in public health requires the ability to identify and search for resources beyond the electronically available published literature. (Alpi, 2005)
Grey Literature in the Health Sciences (continued)
• “Unpublished trials contribute almost 20% of the weight in individual meta-analysis.” (Krishnan, 2004)
Challenges of Grey Literature
• Hard to find• Much content isn’t web-published• Rarely indexed, or minimally indexed • Basic bibliographic information may be
unavailable• Older reports may not be archived (long
term archiving issues)• Volume of material can be overwhelming
and time-consuming
Grey Literature Searching Exercises
• Can you find the abstract of this conference presentation:Dunscombe P, Anderson R, Brown D, Gackle M, Lau H. A
Course in Ethics and Errors for Radiation Medicine Professionals. ESTRO Meeting, Barcelona, Spain. Sep 2010
• Is there any active clinical trial in North America on depression screening in patients undergoing radiation therapy for cancer?
• Can I access part of the document “International Travel and Health 2010” on the topic of Vaccine-preventable diseases and vaccines?
What can we do as librarians?
• Lin, Y., and M. Vaska Raising Awareness of Grey Literature in an Academic Community Using the Cognitive Behavioral Theory. – In: GL11 Conference Proceedings. TextRelease, 2010, 8 p., including PowerPointLin, Y., and M. Vaska Information Literacy and Librarians’ Experiences with Teaching Grey Literature to Medical Students and Healthcare Practitioners. In: GL10 Conference Proceedings. TextRelease, 2009, 7 p., including a PowerPoint
Questions? Comments?
Thank you!
Yongtao Lin, MLIS
Librarian, Tom Baker Cancer Knowledge [email protected]
Phone: 403-521-3285
