Grey literature is an umbrella term for the wealth of literature and publications that fall outside of the traditional peer-reviewed journal article. This can include things like posters, conference proceedings, government reports, white papers, clinical trials, preprints, and more.
A scoping review is meant to reflect the state of the literature on a given topic. Given that so much of the scholarly conversation happens in grey literature, it is considered best practice to include grey literature whenever relevant in scoping reviews.
That being said, grey literature is a broad field and can be hard to find, so the goal is to identify 1-2 places that are going to have the most relevant grey literature for your topic and focus on searching those places.
Note that many databases include some amount of grey literature, such as dissertations. Be sure not to use limiters such as "peer reviewed" in these databases, or you will exclude relevant grey literature from your search results.
The sources below represent the most commonly used grey literature sources. If you want to see a more complete list of grey literature sources, lick on the Grey Literature Source tab in the navigation menu.
Clinical trial registries collect information on in-progress and completed clinical trials, often with the results of the trial. Clinical trial registries are the go-to grey literature source for clinical questions, particularly ones interested in specific interventions often tested via clinical trials. Clinical trials are particularly important if you believe there are recent trials that may not yet be reflected in the published literature.
Public registry and results database of publicly and privately supported clinical studies of human participants conducted around the world.
Preprints are articles where the research has already been completed and the results have been shared before they have been peer-reviewed and formally published. Preprint servers can allow you to find cutting-edge research and get around the publication time-lag inherent in traditional journals. Typically you only need to search the last 1-2 years on a preprint server, as older preprints will have since been formally published.
In addition to the preprint server below, there are many preprint servers for different disciplines such as psychology, education, and more. Reach out to your liaison librarian for suggestions on additional preprint servers.
MedRxiv is an online repository of article preprints in the medical, clinical, and related health sciences.
Often times organizations such as professional organizations, advocacy organizations, and philanthropic organizations produce white papers, reports, newsletters, or other forms of publications that will not be found in databases. For many such topics, it can be beneficial to search the websites of such organizations directly.
For example, many students do research related to PA education or PA careers, and professional organizations such has AAPA and PAEA often produce literature on these kinds of topics.
The NGO search below is a custom google search that can help you find organizations that work in a particular area. A regular Google search can also be fruitful. For help identifying potential organizations, reach out to your liaison librarian.
Government agencies produce a wide variety of publications such as white papers, reports, and more. If you are aware of a government agency that does work in your research area, it can be a good idea to search that agency's website.
For example, public health topics may be interested in the publications of the CDC, or you may want to look at AHRQ publications for topics related to patient safety.
For recommendations on government sources related to your research topic, reach out to your liaison librarian.
Source: https://guides.library.cornell.edu/evidence-synthesis/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