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Grey Literature

What, Why, Where & How of Gray Literature

APA Citation Style for Grey Literature sources

APA 7th Edition

Grey literature is a category of resources that includes technical or research reports by government agencies, research institutes, organizations or companies, or associations. This type of literature includes (but is not limited to):

  • white papers
  • working papers
  • policy briefs
  • reports (Royal Roads University, 2015, What is grey literature?)

For more information, please visit Grey Literature: What Is It?

See below for four sample references to reports, and for more information on and examples of references to reports and grey literature, refer to pages 329-331 in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2020).

Author, A. A. (date). Title of report: Subtitle of report (Report No. xxx). Publisher Name. URL

  • If the report doesn't have a report number, leave that information out of the reference.
  • “If the publisher is the same as the author, which is often the case for group authors, . . . omit the publisher from the source element” (American Psychological Association [APA], 2020, p. 329).

Authored Report From an Agency Website

BC Hydro. (2013). Environmental impact statement executive summary.  Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. http://www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca/050/documents_staticpost/63919/85328/Executive_Summary.pdf

  • In-text citation: (BC Hydro, 2013, p. X)

Authored Report from a Government Department

Bush, E., & Lemmen, D. S. (Eds.). (2019). Canada’s changing climate report. Natural Resources Canada. https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/sites/www.nrcan.gc.ca/files/energy/Climate-change/pdf/CCCR_FULLREPORT-EN-FINAL.pdf

  • In-text citation: (Bush & Lemmen, 2019, p. X)

Report from a Private Organization, Available on Organization Website (e.g., annual report)

Canadian Solar. (2018). 2018 annual report. http://investors.canadiansolar.com/static-files/f5df404b-6f97-4027-8be3-db57c5bb35d6

  • In-text citation: (Canadian Solar, 2018, p. X)

United Nations Report

United Nations Development Programme. (2014). Human development report 2014: Sustaining human progress: Reducing vulnerabilities and building resilience. http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdr14-report-en-1.pdf

  • First in-text citation: (United Nations Development Programme [UNDP], 2014, p. X)
  • Subsequent in-text citations: (UNDP, 2014, p. X)

References

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

Royal Roads University. (2015). Grey literature: What is it? http://libguides.royalroads.ca/greylit

AMA Citation Style for Grey Literature

Dissertation/Thesis

Author last name Author’s first initials. Title of Book [dissertation]. Place of college or university: Name of college or university; year of completion.

Online Government/Organization Report

Author(s) or responsible body. Title of report. URL. Published date. Updated date. Accessed date.

Online Conference Proceeding/Presentation

Author(s). Title of presentation. Name of society meeting or conference; date of meeting or conference; place of meeting or conference. URL. Accessed date.

News Publications

Author(s). Title. Name of Newspaper. Publication date. Accessed date. Website address.

Websites

Author(s). Title. Name of website. Publication date. Updated date. Accessed date. URL