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Nursing and Health Sciences Subject Guide

Learn about key library resources for studying health sciences

What is Grey Literature?

The Fourth International Conference on Grey Literature (GL '99) in Washington, DC, in October 1999 defined grey literature as follows: "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."

 They may include, but are not limited to the following types of materials:

  • reports (pre-prints, preliminary progress and advanced reports, technical reports, statistical reports, memoranda, state-of-the art reports, market research reports, etc.),
  • theses,
  • conference proceedings,
  • technical specifications and standards,
  • non-commercial translations,
  • bibliographies,
  • technical and commercial documentation,
  • official documents not published commercially (primarily government reports and documents) (Alberani, 1990).

(Grey Lit Report)

Finding Grey Literature with Google

(For captions, click on CC in bottom right corner).

What is grey literature?

This video from Australian National University Library explains really clearly what grey literature is.

Grey Literature Resources

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS