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Grey Literature

Business examples

Current, Canadian and international business, economic and policy issues.
Authoritative evidence-based resources will include statistics, reports and information - 'grey literature' - found on government, research institute and advocacy organization websites. Newspaper articles, online media and scholarly articles will help in identifying useful sites and reputable sources of information. 

Finding credible and reputable sources means thinking about the range of players involved in the issue and what information they may publish.

These could be:

      • companies, financial institutions, banks
      • the markets – stock, bond, commodities, currency
      • industry and trade associations, stakeholder and advocacy organizations
      • economists, think tanks, research institutes, consulting firms
      • governments – international, federal, provincial, municipal & NGO's, IGO's
      • public agencies - health units, environmental agencies, universities, police, courts
      • media – newspapers, magazines, tv, social
      • analysts – equity research
 

Media reports can provide clues to information sources.  Look further than the headline and ask:

What did the journalist base the story on

        is there a report, a website, some stats?

Who did they interview

     a politician, public health or business leader, scientist or academic?

     from what agency or organization?

Finding other relevant sources

Use the sources listed by the authors of the reports and articles you find

Look at:

  • footnotes
  • URL's and links
  • captions on statistical charts and tables
  • references/ bibliographies/ works cited

These are lists of other relevant sources.

Find them searching Omni, Journals, or the open web.

Search Tools & Databases

Conference Board e-Library
Reports, presentations, webinars and data of Canadian economic, organizational performance, and public policy issues. Also economic forecasting and Metropolitan, Provincial and Canadian economic data and analysis.

Canada Commons
Reports and publications from Canadian agencies, NGO's and think tanks. Current and historical federal, provincial and municipal government publications
 

Full text reports and research from policy experts, think tanks, IGO’s and NGO’s. 

Statista
Portal consolidates statistical data on topics including business and industry, media, technology, public policy, society, life and health from thousands of sources. Presented in tables, charts, infographics and reports. Statistics can be exported in PPT, XLS, PDF, and PNG formats.

Custom search of global think tanks.
And a list of major organizations.