Information monitoring/watch

26 February 2024

Grey literature: characteristics, sources and identification features

To carry out an information search or an information watch requires knowledge of the panorama specific to the field under study. The sources and types of documents to locate are part of this picture. At Cogniges, we offer you the opportunity to tap into the wealth of grey literature. Find out here what it is, what its strengths and challenges are, and what types of sources and collection methods are used by information specialists to deliver optimal results.

 

White, grey and dark literature

In terms of documentary typology, there are three colors of literature. White literature, the best known, represents information that is easily and legally accessible. It comes from traditional publishing, which is easy to find and easy to consult, even if it sometimes must be paid for. Examples include scientific articles and reference works.

In contrast, grey literature "corresponds to any type of document produced by government, administration, teaching and research, commerce and industry, in paper or digital format, protected by intellectual property rights, of sufficient quality to be collected and preserved by a library or institutional archive, and which is not controlled by commercial publishing" [1]. Theses, research protocols and reports, as well as papers presented at conferences and symposia, are all part of this underground literature.

Last but not least, dark literature - in addition to the well-known concept of dark detective novel - is secret by nature, and therefore not open to public distribution, even on a restricted basis. These are strictly internal reports, often bearing a seal of confidentiality.

 

Great features, challenges to consider

Grey literature is an integral part of scientific documentation. It offers undeniable advantages:

  • Speed: by escaping the commercial process, grey literature will appear more quickly, giving early access to research results [2, 3].
  • Recency: thanks to its speed of publication, grey literature offers access not only to topical scientific information, but also to emerging content, making it of great interest for monitoring purposes [2, 3].
  • Free of charge: it is a characteristic attributable to the fact that it is located outside the commercial channel.
  • Balance: while white literature most often reflects positive results, grey literature opens the door to neutral or negative results, thus reducing publication bias and providing a better representation of research [3, 4].

However, those wishing to search for grey literature should bear in mind the following challenges:

  • Diversity in terms of media and formats.
  • Variable quality, since there is not necessarily a peer review process.
  • Retrieval is sometimes difficult, as documents are not centralized in a single source and are often linked to each producing organization and its respective referencing method.
  • The perenniality of access varies, since unlike, for example, a scientific article associated with a DOI (Digital Object Identifier), a document from grey literature depends on the stability of the arborescence and archiving of the host site.
  • Bibliographical references can be difficult to build.
  • Time required to locate and filter relevant information, based on the above.

Monitoring sources and methods

Sources of grey literature can be categorized. For illustrative purposes, the following examples concern the fields of health and social services, without any claim to exhaustiveness.

Of course, once a document from grey literature has been identified, it must be examined according to the same quality criteria as any other source of information. In addition, the AACODS (Authority, Accuracy, Coverage, Objective, Date, Significance) checklist is used to assess certain dimensions specific to grey literature.

Monitoring methods, on the other hand, depend on the arrangement of sources. The information specialist may use a combination of the following methods:

  • RSS feeds(Real Simple Syndication) : A news feed linked to a given Web site and used to track new content published on that site using an aggregator such as Inoreader.
  • Alerts: in a general-purpose search engine like Google, you can set up an alert for a keyword or expression: any new results will be delivered by e-mail.
  • Search syntax: proactively, you can associate a keyword or expression with a source website. For example, "grey literature" inurl:cogniges searches the Cogniges website for the expression grey literature.

For an overview of grey literature in various fields, consult the thematic pages of the Université Laval or Université de Sherbrooke libraries.

 

Grey literature: a profitable investment

Cogniges can use its expertise to include grey literature in the mandates it carries out for you. Government and agency reports, as well as lesser-known databases and websites, will be among the sources targeted for research and monitoring in your field, providing you with an optimal set of relevant results. Indeed, despite the challenges and efforts involved in identifying and exploiting it, grey literature is a must.

 

References

[1] Schöpfel, J. (2010, décembre). Towards a Prague definition of grey literature. Paper presented at: Twelfth International Conference on Grey Literature: Transparency in Grey Literature. Grey Tech Approaches to High Tech Issues, Prague, Czech Republic. http://archivesic.ccsd.cnrs.fr/sic_00581570/document

[2] Halima, S. (2007). La littérature grise : face méconnue de la documentation scientifique (1re partie). Documentation et bibliothèques, 53(4), 205–210. https://doi.org/10.7202/1030779ar

[3] Tessier, V. (maj 2023, déc.). Littérature grise. INSPQ. https://extranet.santecom.qc.ca/wiki/!biblio3s/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=fs-litt-grise.pdf