Grey literature includes resources other than academic articles or textbooks such as conference materials, datasets, government papers, interviews, reports, newsletters, pamphlets, policy statements and social media. This guide provides some suggestions of where to find these resources.
These databases include conference papers - use the filters on your search results to see what types of documents are coming up in your scoping searches.
Scopus includes references to journal articles, conference proceedings and books relating to science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts & humanities.
Search the world’s leading scholarly journals, books, and proceedings in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities.
Includes: Science Citation Index; Social sciences Citation Index; Arts and Humanities Citation Index; Arts and Humanities Citation Index; Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Science; Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Social Science & Humanities.
These databases specialise in policy documents.
Eldis provides free access to relevant, up-to-date and diverse research on international development issues. Eldis is hosted by the Institute of Development Studies.
Use Policy Commons to discover and follow high-quality policy research from 210 countries and territories produced by world’s leading policy experts, charities, think tanks, IGOs and NGOs. Includes publications from inactive organisations that may not be available elsewhere. For help with searching see https://coherentdigital.net/resources2-1
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.
Information on the structure or policies of UK Government can be found on the GOV.UK website. For UK central government information published on the web, including videos, tweets, images and websites dating from 1996 to the present day, search the search the UK Government Web Archive. For Parliamentary papers, see these databases:
Access to UK parliamentary papers - House of Commons sessional papers from 1715 to 2010.
UK parliamentary papers from the Westminster Parliament, Scottish Parliament, Northern Ireland Assembly, National Assembly for Wales and Scottish Government. Documents available on the day of publication.
If you need information from international governments, this list of government websites might be a useful starting point.
The Department of Health and Social Care is made up of 29 agencies and public bodies. The following produce publications, disseminate news and conduct research of interest:
These organisations can be useful for finding global information. Click on the i symbol to find out more about them.
The online library of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) featuring its books, papers and statistics and is the gateway to OECD's analysis and data.
Full text access to publications on Water, Sanitation and Health from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
A charity is a charitable organisation set up to provide assistance to those in need. They are not-for profit organisations, usually with a specific theme such as health, education or another social, medical or economic basis. They are officially recognised (e.g. in the UK, they must be registered with and are regulated by the Charity Commission).
Some charities will commission and publish research in their area of expertise, for example:
Look up charities working in the area of your interest and see if any of them have published any research.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines a think tank as 'a group of experts who are brought together to develop ideas and give advice on a particular subject' (Cambridge Dictionary 2020).
Whilst some think tanks are independent, others have political leanings. As always, read critically and evaluate resources to assess their suitability for inclusion in your writing. This list may help you identify think tanks operating in your area of interest.
This includes theses and dissertations, but also "working papers" that have yet to be published and can be found in online repositories. Try this list of subject specific repositories to find one covering your area of study.
The University of Bristol's definitive research information source including full-text research publications, research projects and the people behind the research. Part of Pure, the University of Bristol's research information system.
From Cornell University, this free, open access archive has around 2 million scholarly articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics
Grey literature is often more current as it bypasses the peer review process. It can be useful when looking at emerging areas of research, but it can be of variable quality. See our guidance on evaluating sources to help you assess the quality of grey literature in your research.
