Grey literature - Annotated Bibliography

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Introduction

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This selective bibliography lists articles that discuss the retrieval of grey literature in the health sciences. To scan a range of articles in the medical literature on this topic, try this PubMed search on "grey" OR "gray" literature

Alberani V, Pietrangeli PDC, Mazza AMR. The use of grey literature in health sciences: a preliminary survey. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 1990; 78(4): 358-363.

A classic article in health librarianship. Describes initiatives in grey literature and the activities of the Italian Library Association Study Group. Using a survey, definitions and how end-users use GL are explored. Research was analyzed from 1987-1988 to determine number of articles citing GL, citations found in journals, various kinds of GL, technical reports cited and country of origin. Selected databases were searched to determine the presence of GL during those same years.

Anderson, Byron. Grey literature and electronic publishing. Behavioral and Social Sciences Librarian 2001 19 (3/4): 57-73.

Anderson points out that some information not found in traditional databases is easier to find in the grey literature. Addressing librarians and scholars, he describes access problems and efforts of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to improve access to grey literature.

Auger Charles P. Information sources in grey literature, 4e. London: Bowker, 1998.

Auger describes grey literature as "difficult-to-define" publications not available through regular channels. This guide concentrates on identifying, tracing, and acquiring publications. Contents include a short discussion on the nature and production of grey literature and methods of bibliographic control, cataloging and indexing. Individual chapters devoted to aerospace, life sciences, business and economics, education, energy, and science and technology summarize information on major grey literature sources and materials they produce. A list of international organizations dealing in grey literature appears at the end of the text.

Banks, Marcus. Connections between open access publishing and access to gray literature. J Med Libr Assoc. 2004 April; 92(2): 164-166.

The potential of open access to increase access to peer-reviewed literature is worth discussion. The challenge of providing access to the gray literature to complement peer-reviewed research is keeping up to it. We do not need to launch an open access movement to obtain this material, due to its lack of commercial significance. The challenge is to develop resources of depth comparable to peer-reviewed scholarship.

Banks Marcus. Towards a continuum of scholarship : the eventual collapse of the distinction between grey and non-grey literature. In Farace, Dominic, Eds. Proceedings GL7 : Seventh International Conference on Grey Literature, Nancy (France). 2005.

The distinction between grey and non-grey (or white) literature will become less relevant over time, as online options proliferate. In the meantime, the political success of the open access publishing movement has valuable lessons for proponents of increasing access to grey literature.

Childress, Eric and Erik Jul. "Going Gray: Gray Literature and Metadata". Journal of Internet Cataloging 6:3 (2003): 3-6.

Denda, Kayo. “Fugitive Literature in the Cross Hairs: An Examination of Bibliographic Control and Access”. Collection Management 27:2 (2002): 75-86.

Devine, Jane, and Francine Egger-Sider. Beyond Google: the invisible web in the academic library. Journal of Academic Librarianship 30:4 (2004): 265-269.

This article analyzes the concept of the Invisible Web and its implication for academic librarianship. It offers a guide to tools that can be used to mine the Invisible Web and discusses the benefits of using the Invisible Web to promote interest in library services. In addition, the article includes an expanded definition, a literature review, and suggestions for ways in which to incorporate the Invisible Web in reference work and library promotion.

Frater J, Myohanen L, Taylor E, Keith L. What Would You Tell Me If I Said Grey Literature? J Elec Res Med Libr. 2007; 4:145-153.

This article is a brief overview of the New York Academy of Medicine's Grey Literature Report. A short description of GL is provided, and how the material is used by the Academy. The history of the report is covered and is followed by the reasons NYAM collects it, collection development, technical services issues, format for the report, subscriber base, problems and obstacles involved in its production, and possibilities for future development.

Gelfand JM. Teaching and exposing grey literature: what the information profession needs to know - examples from the sciences. Collection Building 1998 17 (4): 159-166.

Julia Gelfand is an American applied sciences librarian who writes about grey literature. In this paper, she describes progress made in exposing grey literature, and making it more accessible and visible to scholars. She describes the impact of the web on scholarly publishing and its implications for grey literature and scholarly communication.

Hopewell S, McDonald S, Clarke M, Egger M. Grey literature in meta-analyses of randomized trials of health care interventions. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2007 Apr 18;(2):MR000010.

The inclusion of grey literature (i.e. literature that has not been formally published) in systematic reviews may help to overcome some of the problems of publication bias, which can arise due to the selective availability of data. This review shows that published trials tend to be larger and show an overall greater treatment effect than grey trials. This has important implications for reviewers who need to ensure they identify grey trials, in order to minimise the risk of introducing bias into their review.

Pace AK. Black, white, and shades of gray (literature) on the Web. Computers in Libraries 2002 22 (4): 44-47.

The author discusses 'gray' literature - what librarians used to call 'the vertical file' - on the Web. Web content that is not making its way into commercial databases should be enriched with descriptive tagging to increase subject access. Google as a search engine surpasses others in indexing web files and providing better access to electronic theses and dissertations (ETD) than library OPACs.

Savoie I, Helmer D, Green CJ, Kazanjian A. Beyond Medline: reducing bias through extended systematic review search. Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 2003 Winter;19(1):168-78.

Extended systematic search methods uncovered 29.2% of all items retrieved for systematic reviews. The search of specialized databases was the most effective method, followed by scanning of reference lists, communicating personally and hand searching. Although the number of items identified through hand searching was small, these unique items would otherwise have been missed. Systematic search methods are effective tools for uncovering material for the systematic review. The quality of the items uncovered has yet to be assessed and are key in evaluating the value of the systematic search methods.

J. Schöpfel & D. J. Farace (2010). `Grey Literature'. In M. J. Bates & M. N. Maack (eds.), Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences, Third Edition, pp. 2029-2039. CRC Press.

Szurmak J, McKimmie T. Beyond grey literature: how grey questions can drive research. Journal of Agricultultural and Food Information 2002 4(2):71-79.

Grey lit is broadly defined as news clippings, reports, newsletters, listserv queries, consultations and personal contacts and periodicals not in databases. GL raises "grey questions" and fills in knowledge gaps left by peer-reviewed literature. Traditional databases do not index grey lit and leave researchers with a false impression that information cannot be found. The authors recommend a database of grey questions and networking among information providers and librarians to find answers.

Shpilko I. Locating grey literature on communication disorders. Med Ref Serv Q. 2005 Fall; 24 (3): 67-80.

This is an overview of GL resources in the area of communication disorders. It is geared to practitioners, researchers, and consumers seeking reliable, freely available scientific information. Includes identification of the methods specialists use to obtain this valuable, yet often overlooked, literature. Access points and search tools for identifying grey literature on communication disorders are recommended. Commercial databases containing grey literature are not included.

Sulouff, P. Learning about gray literature by interviewing subject librarians: A study at the University of Rochester. College & Research Libraries News, 66(7) 2005, p. 510-515.

Turner AM, Liddy ED et al. Modeling public health interventions for improved access to the gray literature. J Med Libr Assoc. 2005 October; 93(4): 487–494.

A lot of public health (PH) information is considered gray literature and not made available through traditional venues. The aim of this project is to improve access to PH gray literature reports through established natural language processing (NLP) techniques. This paper summarizes the development of a model for representing gray literature documents concerning PH interventions. Authors establish a model-based approach for automatically analyzing and representing the PH gray literature through evaluation of gray literature from seven PH Websites. Input from fifteen PH professionals assisted in the development of the model and prioritization of elements for NLP extraction.

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