Are there any other ways to find grey literature?
Use search engines
There are methods that you can make use of to target your search for grey literature.
- Restrict content to only governments or organizations by typing in your search term and then either 'site:.org' or 'site:.gov'.
- You can take it further and limit your search to e.g. UK government sites only by typing 'site:.gov.uk'.
- Restrict content to a specific file type by typing in your search term and then e.g. 'filetype:pdf' or 'filetype:doc'.
- If you're looking for grey literature from a specific country, use their version of Google, for example, Google Australia or Google UK.
- If you'd like a fresh take, try search engine DuckDuckGo, as it doesn't track location or user searches. This means it doesn't filter results based on your user profile.
Go directly to organizations' websites
Identify organizations that might publish technical papers and reports on the subject you're looking for. These could be government agencies, non-profits, research institutes, pressure groups, international organizations, or professional associations.
For example, the
World Health Organization (WHO) has several online collections of grey literature and the
World Bank makes all of their publications available online for free.
Search your chosen organizations' websites, looking for sections of the site with names such as 'Documents', 'Reports' or 'Library'.
Research known researchers in your field of interest. You can then contact them to kindly ask if they're aware of any unpublished or ongoing studies - more often than not they will be happy to point you in the right direction.
