Justice Studies: Grey Literature
What is Grey Literature?
Grey literature is materials and research produced by organizations outside of the traditional commercial or academic publishing and distribution channels.
Common grey literature publication types include reports (annual, research, technical, project, etc.), working papers, government documents, white papers and evaluations.
Organizations that produce grey literature include government departments and agencies, civil society or non-governmental organizations, academic centers and departments, and private companies and consultants.
Sources of Grey Literature
Grey literature may often be found in the usual sources that you are searching, such as subject databases, Worldcat, JSTOR, and the Open Access section in the UNO Library catalog.
If you are in Google or Google Scholar try utilizing search terms for the type of resource you need, for example:
- keyword AND ("conference proceeding" OR "conference paper" OR "conference report")
Below are a few other sources:
- Policy CommonsOffers a global curated collection of policy reports, briefs, analyses and working papers, produced by policy organizations, research institutes and think tanks. Requires registration. Free access.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowJSTOR hosts a growing curated collection of more than 50,000 open research reports from 187 think tanks and research institutes from around the world. These publications are freely accessible to everyone on JSTOR and discoverable as their own content type alongside journals, books, and primary sources. We update research reports on our platform each month as they become available through contributing institutes.
- Kennedy School of Government Think Tank SearchA Google Custom Search of more than 1200 think tanks and research centers.
- Networked Digital Library of Theses and DissertationsFree international resource for theses and dissertations.
- Office of Scientific and Technical Information, Department of Energy.The primary search tool for Department of Energy (DOE) funded science, technology, & engineering R&D results. It combines the search structure of OSTI’s previous search tool, SciTech Connect, with information about OSTI and the tools & services it provides to users across the DOE complex & to the public.
- Social Science Research Network (SSRN) Conference ProceedingsSearch conference proceedings from nearly 50 disciplines and hundreds of conferences.
- World BankThe World Bank now makes all of their publications openly available online.
- WHO Institutional Repository for Information Sharing (IRIS)Institutional World Health Organization database of intergovernmental policy documents and technical reports. Can search by IRIS by region (Africa, Americas, Eastern Mediterranean, Europe, South-East Asia, Western Pacific).
- Health Research WebHRWeb is a growing source of information on the structure, organisation, financing and prioritisation of research for health in and for low and middle income countries. It is not primarily a research database – these can be found elsewhere. Instead, HRWeb's unique contributions are that:
a) it organises global information on research for health from the point of view of low and middle income countries;
b) it captures research system information – enabling countries and institutions to govern and manage health research as an essential aspect of increasing health, equity and development;