All guides: Grey literature: Grey literature sources

Examples of grey literature

There are many types of grey literature, with some examples as follows:

Blogs
Clinical trials
Conference papers and proceedings
Datasets
Diaries and letters
E-prints or pre-prints
Fact sheets, bulletins

Government and NGO documents, reports and working papers
Infographics
Informal communication
Interviews
Market reports
Newsletters
Pamphlets

Patents
Policy statements
Posters
Research data
Social media posts
Standards
Statistics
Surveys
Theses

Conferences

Conferences are an important part of staying current with intellectual and academic developments and discussion. There are many websites that will alert you of upcoming conferences. Papers are sometimes available via conference websites or accessible via databases.

Conal Conference Alerts
Receive free emailed updates of conferences matching your interests, available dates and preferred destinations.
Higher Education conferences worldwide
Conferences in higher education and related fields.
Calendar of upcoming scientific conferences (COMS)
A listing of conferences coming up in Australia, including the topics of mathematics, physics, chemistry and engineering.
Conference Monkey
Find conferences worldwide on a range of topics. It is possible to narrow down by date and topic.
ConfEvent
ConfEvent.com promotes conferences, seminars and other public events. The website helps visitors find details about public events worldwide.

Directories and repositories

Repositories contain research output, which are considered grey literature. These resources can be unpublished, or could have been published in other forms. Repositories are a great place to locate research findings before they are made available through a commercial publisher. Repositories can contain dissertations, theses, creative works, data, journal articles, book chapters and conference papers.

BASE
BASE provides more than 100 million documents from more than 5,000 sources, including journals, institutional repositories, digital collections etc.
Grey Matters
Developed by Canada's Drug and Health Technology Agency Grey Matters is a practical tool to search for sources of health related grey literature.
Grey Source
Provides examples of grey literature to the average net-user and in so doing profiles organizations responsible for its production and/or processing.
OpenDOAR
OpenDOAR is the quality-assured, global Directory of Open Access Repositories. You can search and browse through thousands of registered repositories based on a range of features, such as location, software or type of material held.
OpenGrey
Covers grey literature in Europe and covers Science, Technology, Biomedical Science, Economics, Social Science and Humanities.
RMIT Research Repository
The Research Repository is a collection of peer-reviewed research outputs and publications produced by RMIT University researchers, including Higher Degree by Research candidates.

Library catalogues

Trove
Trove is an overarching interface to search most Australian libraries, as well as museums, archives, repositories and other research and collecting organisations. Grey literature you can find includes theses, conference papers and proceedings, reports and other content held in these collections.
WorldCat
WorldCat.org lets you search the collections of libraries in your community and thousands more around the world. This can help you locate where grey literature you have identified is available.

News articles

News and newspapers
A library guide providing quick access to Australian and some international online newspapers and news services.

Australia & New Zealand Newsstream (ProQuest)
Provides Access to the full text of major Australian and New Zealand newspapers. It includes regional and rural radio transcripts and news from current affairs television programs such as the ABC 7.30 Report.
Factiva
Factiva is the major source for Australian newspapers - both the Fairfax and Murdoch press, and has exclusive rights to the Australian Financial Review & the Business Review Weekly. It is a Dow Jones & Reuters Company product and offers content from over 9,000 sources of information. Access limited to 5 concurrent users.
TV News (Informit)
TVNews indexes Australian television news, current affairs and selected documentaries from the free-to-air networks with links to the digitised video content. All individual stories from a particular broadcast are indexed with a detailed synopsis. TVNews is updated daily, with stories appearing on an evening news broadcast generally being available for access the next morning.

Patents, standards and IP sources

IP Australia
Search for Australian patents, trademarks, designs and plant breeder rights.
Patents
A library guide providing a list of patent databases and search engines.
Standards
A library guide on how to search and find Australian and international standards in a variety of subject areas. Learn how to request standards not available at RMIT. The guide includes a list of patent databases and search engines.

Policy, statistics and data

Policy

Analysis and Policy Observatory (APO)
APO specialises in grey literature and provides access to a range of research reports, working papers, discussion papers and statistics for effective public policy debate, decision making and implementation.

Policy commons: World cities.
Includes the full text of surveys, budgets, statistical records, case studies, planning documents, training manuals, policy guidelines, reports, and news from the world's top 100 cities by population, capital cities with populations greater than 20,000 people, major cities in the Global South and cities with particular research importance - such as those dealing with climate change, political instability, or rapid growth.
Policy commons: World governments.
Database for public policy, with millions of reports, working papers, policy briefs, data sources, and media drawn from a directory of more than 20,000 IGOs, NGOs, think tanks, and research centers on disciplines including agriculture, energy, pharmaceuticals, diversity, crime, librarianship, etc. Community tools allow users to upload, share, and discuss their discoveries.
Policy commons: Public health and social care.
Database for public policy, with millions of reports, working papers, policy briefs, data sources, and media drawn from a directory of more than 20,000 IGOs, NGOs, think tanks, and research centers on disciplines including agriculture, energy, pharmaceuticals, diversity, crime, librarianship, etc. Community tools allow users to upload, share, and discuss their discoveries.

Statistics

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
The ABS is Australia’s national statistical agency, providing trusted official statistics on a wide range of economic, social, population and environmental matters of importance to Australia.

Data

Research data management
A library guide that addresses FAIR principles, policies and ethics, data planning, storing, and sharing data.
Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC)
The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) is a transformational initiative that enables Australian research community and industry access to nationally significant, leading edge data intensive infrastructure, platforms, skills and collections of high-quality data.

Preprint archives

Preprint databases contain the author's original manuscript before submission for traditional publication. Find out more about preprints.

OSF Preprints
OSF Preprints is a collection of various preprint servers, both those hosted on the OSF and elsewhere.

Theses

Theses
A library guide on how to find theses published at RMIT University, other Australian universities, and overseas. Also covers how to get and submit theses at RMIT University.

Teaching and Research guides

Grey literature