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Literature Reviews: Systematic & Narrative: Grey literature

Grey literature

Grey literature refers to information that, unlike books and journal articles, has be produced outside of the typical commercial publishing channels.  It has usually been produced and distributed by an organisation.

Grey literature can include:

  • Government documents
  • Policy documents
  • Codes of ethics
  • Reports
  • Newsletters
  • Working papers
  • Dissertations and theses
  • Legislation
  • Conference materials
  • Patents
  • Clinical trial data
  • Blogs and social media

As you can tell from this list some would count as much more reliable than others in terms of their quality and usefulness for research purposes.

Where to find grey literature

While grey literature can be very useful for research, it can be tricky to find. Often the best place to go is to look through the resources on a particular organisation or Government department's site.  

Policy documents, reports etc.
Government sites
Theses and dissertations

Other university repositories from across Aotearoa.

Additional places to get information on Grey Literature

Resources about the use of grey literature in Systematic Literature Reviews