LibGuides: German: Grey literature

Library

Grey literature

Introduction

Grey literature includes a wealth of information such as conference materials, datasets, discussion forums, dissertations and theses, government and local government papers, interviews, market reports, newsletters, pamphlets, policy statements, pre-print articles, research reports and survey results.

Overton - discover worldwide policy documents

Overton This link opens in a new window
Overton enables the discovery of policy documents and their links to each other, academic papers, and relevant people and topics. It works with leading global universities, IGOs, NGOs, research funders, publishers and think tanks to understand their role in the policymaking landscape.
NB: This database can be browsed on campus without signing into the Overton site. Off campus, users need to register on the Overton registration page with their @bristol.ac.uk email address. Overton allows users to discover policy documents in 180 countries and explore their links to each other and to the academic research that has informed them. Overton indexes work from governments, universities, IGOs, NGOs, research funders, publishers and think tanks to understand their role in the policymaking landscape. Users can track the evolution of ideas all the way from academic and think tank research to government reports and legislation.

Finding grey literature on the internet

Internet searching can be really useful because results are often very current and bypass the peer review/publishing process. This means that it can be useful when looking at new or emerging areas of research. However, as it's not peer reviewed it can be of variable quality. You will need to assess the quality of this information yourself and decide if it appropriate to include in your work. The tutorial below will help you to do this.

This interactive tutorial provides an introduction to grey literature

The Four Moves

The SIFT guide is a useful introduction to the principles of searching the internet to find high quality information.

Mike Caulfield. CC BY 4.0, via Hapgood.US

STOP – What is the source of the information? What is the reputation of the information and the source?

INVESTIGATE – What are you reading? Who produced the information? Knowing the expertise and agenda of the source is crucial to understanding the significance and trustworthiness of the information.

FIND BETTER COVERAGE – look for trusted sources to verify the information – “go out and find the best source you can on this topic, or, just as importantly, to scan multiple sources and see what the expert consensus seems to be”

TRACE – try and find the original context for the information you are looking at. Viewing it in it’s original context will help you get a sense of how accurately the information it being presented.

Full details of The Four Moves can be found here.