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Grey Literature

Social Science Example

Question: What strategic or mobilization plans are under development by Canadian government committees or Canadian associations or organizations to support adolescents with mental health issues in Canada?

This topic can be evidenced with grey literature sources coming from federal and provincial governments and mental health associations and organizations.  An initial Google search can help to identify these sources which can then be followed up with other information tools.

A possible Google search would combine:

Content keywords

  • population: e.g., adolescents OR teenagers OR youth (use OR in capitals to indicate synonyms)
  • "mental health" OR "mental illness" (use quotation marks to indicate phrases)

Search 1

site:gc.ca filetype:pdf report adolescents OR teenagers OR youth “mental health” OR “mental illness” mobilization OR strategy OR plan

Search 2

site:.ca filetype:pdf report adolescents OR teenagers OR youth “mental health” OR “mental illness” mobilization OR strategy OR plan

Search 3

site:.org Canada OR Ontario filetype:pdf report adolescents OR teenagers OR youth “mental health” OR “mental illness” mobilization OR strategy OR plan

Search ERIC

 ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) is an example of an education database that includes 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.