Library Help

What is Grey Literature

Grey literature refers to any information source that is not commercially published or distributed through traditional academic publishing channels. It is often produced by governments, research institutes, charities, think tanks, or independent experts. Because these materials are not collected by centralised databases or publishing platforms, they can be difficult to locate and time-consuming to search.

What Counts as Grey Literature?

Examples of grey literature include:

• Internal or unpublished reports, such as government white papers

• Meeting minutes and policy briefs

• Conference abstracts, presentations, and papers

• Theses and dissertations

• Preprint or unpublished research

• Clinical trial data

• Patents and technical standards, such as British Standards (BSI) or International Standards (ISO)

Why Use Grey Literature?

There are several reasons to include grey literature in your research:

• It is often high-quality information written by subject specialists or experts commissioned by government bodies

• It provides insight into the full scope of research, including studies that were not published due to lack of commercial interest

• It reflects the perspectives and expertise of professionals outside of academia, including charities, advocacy groups, and industry experts

• It can offer practical, policy-relevant, or up-to-date information that may not yet appear in academic literature.

Where to Find Grey Literature

Below are some useful resources for locating grey literature. Some links lead to databases subscribed to by UCL Library Services and may require authentication with your UCL credentials.

• BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine) – Includes grey literature and is used primarily to search academic content. Over half its content is open access, sourced from research repositories.

• DERA (Digital Education Resource Archive) – Hosted by IOE, it includes born-digital publications from UK government bodies, departments, quangos, and think tanks in education, children, families, and training.

• EconPapers – Offers economics working papers relevant to education and social sciences.

• Eldis – A gateway for global development research hosted by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK.

• The King’s Fund Database – Covers UK health policy documents and grey literature on social care, mental health, health inequalities, and more.

• OECD Library – Contains reports, working papers, data, books, and journal articles from 30 member countries.

• OpenGrey – A search engine for open-access grey literature in Europe, including reports, conference proceedings, and official publications.

• OpenDOAR – A global directory of open-access institutional repositories, containing reports, conference papers, posters, preprints, and more.

• Overton – A subscription-based platform for policy documents, parliamentary records, government guidance, and think tank outputs.

• Policy Commons – Hosts over 24 million pages of curated policy reports, briefs, datasets, and more from IGOs, NGOs, and think tanks. Watch a short video introducing the platform and its features.

• PsyArXiv – A preprint archive for psychological research managed by the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science and the Center for Open Science.

• PsycEXTRA – A grey literature database in psychology and behavioural sciences. Most records include full text.

• PsycTESTS – Includes unpublished tests, with links to technical reports, theses, and related peer-reviewed literature.

• SocArXiv – An open-access preprint server for the social and behavioural sciences.

• SSRN Research Papers – A repository of working papers across disciplines. Many papers are organised into research networks, such as the Education Research Network.

• UCL Discovery – UCL’s open-access repository for theses (also known as dissertations in the US and Canada).

Additional Tips

• Google and Google Scholar can also help locate grey literature. However, because they often return large numbers of results, they’re best used when you already know the title of a report, working paper, or conference paper.

• Grey literature provides a valuable layer of perspective in your research, often reflecting practical, policy-driven, or emerging viewpoints not found in peer-reviewed sources.

• However, it's essential to evaluate the credibility of grey literature sources carefully. Consider the organisation or individual behind the publication, and be aware of any potential bias in how the information is presented.

Further information on grey literature can be found on the Essential LibrarySkills@UCL Guide.