Grey Literature

You must use specific search strategies to uncover grey literature. For example, a Google search will not include these materials in the top search results without added terms.

Google

Google Scholar includes dissertations and PDFs from institutional repositories but Google is best for gathering a range of grey. Operators are needed to focus on specific resource types.

• filetype:pdf (limit by format because reports often appear as PDFs)

• site:https://www.worldwildlife.org/ (limit by site domain of an institution to restrict results to that site

  • site:gc.ca (retrieves items from the government of Canada as represented in the web address; no space after site:)

  • site:.ca (retrieves entities connected with Canada)

  • site:.org (retrieves organizations and nonprofits, generally non-commercial)

Add keywords describing appropriate format:

• report (retrieves items labelled “report”)
• “white paper”
• legislation
• data OR statistics
•  “think tanks”
• institutional repositories

Policy Commons

A public policy database launched in 2020 providing access to documents from think tanks, IGOs, NGOs, cities, world governments, and research centers.  International coverage.

Conference Proceedings

• Use for current information not yet published; many are indexed in subject-specific databases. Read the description of the database to check coverage.

Theses and Dissertations

Refer to the comprehensive list of sources.

• Proquest Dissertations and Theses Global: access to 4 million citations to dissertations and theses from around the world from 1861 to the present with over 2 million full-text dissertations available for download in PDF format.

Subject Databases

Some include limited grey literature, but results are inconsistent. Read the database description to determine its scope. e.g. ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) links to more than 200,000 full-text non-journal documents. Coverage includes: journal articles, books, research syntheses, conference papers, technical reports, policy papers, and other education-related materials, such as curriculum.

Community Sources

• Consider the channels where information related to your topic is produced. Sources may not be published as articles or in books. 
• Community sources: businesses, local Indigenous First Nations websites; art galleries

Use the custom search box on the Government Documents page. Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) consist of more than one national government, such as NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and the WHO (World Heath Organization).