What is it?
Grey literature is an important source of information which consists of "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." (Fourth International Conference on Grey Literature, 1999)
It includes:
Why use it?
Where to find it?
Searching for grey literature can be hard because it is not produced by commercial publishers, it’s also scattered, vast and not organized. To find grey literature, you will have to search through a variety of sources: Google, government websites, databases, etc. (I have listed some of them below.) Asking yourself the following questions before diving into your search will help you figure out what you are looking for and where to search:
- What kinds of literature are you interested in?
- What time periods and/or geographic areas are relevant to your topic?
Remember that grey literature is usually not peer-reviewed, thus it is important to critically evaluate your sources. There are many criteria you can use to assess the quality of the information you find. Below, I’ve listed one relatively short checklist that provides a starting point to appraise the grey literature you find.
Google and Google Scholar can be useful for grey literature but it should not be your only source. Here are some ways to make your Google search more efficient:
| “Search a phrase” | Quotation marks search for the exact phrase | "This sentence only" |
| site: | Restricts your search to the pages of a particular website (gouv.qc.ca) or domain (.ca) | site:gc.ca |
| filetype: | Searches for a particular file type | filetype:pdf |
| intitle: | Searches only in the title | intitle:"climate change" |
| - | Excludes this term from the search | canary -islands |
(adapted from the UBC's Grey Literature for Health Sciences)
There are many ways to search for government publications:
Custom searches
Canadian Government Publications on the Web
This custom search engine includes federal and all provincial governments. If you would like to search for a specific provincial government, then you will have to use Google and specify the domain.
Non-governmental organizations
Intergovernmental organizations
Agency approach
The following links will help you understand under which jurisdiction your topic falls under.
Acts and regulations
Federal and Provincial Jurisdiction to Regulate Environmental Issues
If you are looking for theses, either from Canada or other countries, the library got you covered! If you are not sure where to start, click "email me" to the right!
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