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Grey Literature is a term used to describe publications that are unpublished or have been published outside of traditional publication processes.
Examples of grey literature include but are not limited to:
Grey literature can be used when:
Like any other resource, you will want to make sure that you evaluate any grey literature you find.
For help with evaluating unpublished research studies and randomised controlled trials (RCT) see the Evaluating Resources page.
For all other grey literature, the Authority – Accuracy – Coverage – Objectivity – Date – Significance (AACODS) checklist has been created as a guidance tool that can be used to aid with the evaluation of grey literature.
Systematic, scoping, or integrative reviews require that researchers take a rigorous approach to searching for available evidence or literature. Because not all available evidence or literature on a research topic will be published commercially, searching for and including grey literature as part of your review can be helpful in ensuring this approach is followed. Other reasons to include grey literature are:
You can find grey literature in databases that index grey literature.
CQUniversity Library provides access to databases which contain specialised information such as standards, statistics, etc. Below are the instructions to locate these databases:
Now all the results that appear will be databases that contain that resource type.
You can find grey literature in online repositories.
You can find grey literature on websites. For example, if you wanted to look for population-wide health reports, you would look them up on websites such as the Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing.
For information on evaluating grey literature from websites, see How to evaluate grey literature on this page.
Clinical Trial Registries can be used to search for clinical trials which have been conducted or are being conducted. They are useful for researchers who would like to see what research is currently being conducted on their topic and for researchers who need to use clinical trials as part of their research. Below are the registries which allow you to search for clinical trials:
CQUniversity acknowledges Traditional Owners and Custodians and pays respect to the Elders of all First Nations peoples of Australia.CQUniversity Australia is a trading name of Central Queensland University
ABN: 39 181 103 288
RTO Code: 40939
CRICOS: 00219C
TEQSA: PRV12073
