What is gray literature?
Gray literature is a different sort of information. It is not scholarly or published, but provides valuable information to the sciences. Gray literature is written by researchers and experts in the field, but is not peer reviewed, which makes gray literature different than the journal articles found in subscription databases and indexes. Because of this lack of review, gray literature is often more detailed and made accessible quicker than published material, but lacks the validation provided by peer review and publication.
Gray literature is produced by govertment agencies, associations, professional organizations, research centers and universities. The following list of documents can be considered gray literature:
- Dissertation and theses
- Conference presentations and proceedings
- Government documents
- Technical reports
- Patents
- Pre-prints
- Standards
- Unpublished trial data
Where to find gray literature?
In addition to these resources, professional organizations and associations may also have information about current research and new findings.
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Dissertation Abstracts (OCLC) This link opens in a new window
Information about doctoral dissertations and some master's theses with coverage: 1861 to the present
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Dissertations & Theses Global (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Citations to dissertations and theses (coverage: 1861 to the present), as well as over a million full-text dissertations available for download (coverage: many *but not all* dissertations added since 1997)
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FDsys: Federal Digital System (GPO)Free online access to official government publications
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GreySourceSelection of web resources in grey literature from the Grey Literature Network Service
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Nature PrecedingsDatabase of pre-publication research and preliminary findings from Nature Publishing Group. New submissions stopped being accepted in April 2012, therefore, any research after that time will not be part of this database.
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OAIster This link opens in a new window
OAIster is a union catalog of millions of records representing open access resources from collections worldwide. OAIster includes more than 50 million records representing digital resources from more than 2,000 contributors.
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OpenDOAROpenDOAR is an authoritative directory of academic open access repositories, with the ability to search the contents of those repositories for free academic research information.
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OpenGreyDeveloped by the System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe, OpenGrey provides open access to 700,000 bibliographical references of grey literature (paper) produced in Europe. Examples of grey (gray) literature include technical or research reports, doctoral dissertations, some conference papers, some official publications, and other types of grey literature. OpenGrey covers Science, Technology, Biomedical Science, Economics, Social Science and Humanities
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PapersFirst This link opens in a new window
OCLC index of papers presented at conferences worldwide. Covers every published congress, symposium, conference, exposition, workshop and meeting received by The British Library Document Supply Centre.
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ProceedingsFirst This link opens in a new window
OCLC index of worldwide conference proceedings. Covers every published congress, symposium, conference, exposition, workshop and meeting received by The British Library Document Supply Centre.
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NDLTD Global ETD SearchDeveloped by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD). Global ETD Search provides an advanced search that can narrow results to theses and dissertations as well as provide access to related scholarly resources.
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SciTech ConnectScience, technology and research information from the US Department of Energy
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University of Maryland Engineering and Physical Sciences Library (Technical Reports and Patents)Search technical reports and patents made available by the UMD Technical Reports Center and Engineering and Physical Sciences Library.
For information on how to search the database, refer to this guide: http://lib.guides.umd.edu/techreports (technical reports) and http://lib.guides.umd.edu/patent_tm (patents).
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WorldCat FirstSearch This link opens in a new window
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of over 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories that participate in the OCLC global cooperative.
