Starting your Search
It can be difficult to know where to begin - and when to end - a grey literature search. Some considerations when developing a grey literature search strategy include:
Who would likely have written about your topic?
- Government agencies?
- Non-governmental organizations?
- Academic institutions?
- Industry?
What kinds of literature would help answer your research question?
- Clinical trials?
- Theses and dissertations?
- Conference proceedings?
- Reports?
- Statistics?
Which time periods or geographic areas are relevant to your research?
Reports
Here are some general databases that can be searched for reports. When searching for grey literature, you should also look for associations or NGO's in your field of study and see if they have published reports that are relevant to your topic.
- ABI/INFORM Collection This link opens in a new windowABI/INFORM Collection is a comprehensive business database, which contains journals, business periodicals, dissertations, and country-and industry-focused reports.
- BCStats This link opens in a new windowCurrent reports and statistics from British Columbia's central statistical agency.
- Canada Commons This link opens in a new windowSearchable access to current public documents issued by Canadian public policy and health research agencies and think tanks, as well as books from over 70 Canadian publishers.
- UNESCO Documents and Publications This link opens in a new windowAccess to documents and publications from UNESCO.
Conference Proceedings
Here are some general databases that can be searched for conference proceedings. You can supplement these with your own knowledge of major conferences and organizations in your area, using their websites and Google search techniques to find additional proceedings.
- CABI Digital Library This link opens in a new windowArticles, ebooks, and data sheets on agriculture, animal health, crop protection, forestry, global health, human nutrition, horticulture, and natural resources management. Includes Cab Abstracts & Global Health databases.
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowWorld's largest academic search engine providing free searching to a full range of scholarly literature (ie. peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, pre-prints, abstracts, technical reports).
- PAIS Index This link opens in a new windowPAIS is an index to the literature of public policy, social policy, and the social sciences in general.
- Web of Science Core Collection This link opens in a new windowMultidisciplinary database of journal articles and conference proceedings, used for citation analysis of research. Includes access to EndNote Basic, a web-based version of EndNote.
Preprints
Preprints are manuscripts which may have been submitted to a journal, but not yet published. They have not yet gone through a formal peer review process, but some preprint servers do allow other researchers to post comments.
Preprint Repository Table
- Preprints in Europe PMCEurope PMC includes preprints from several sources, including arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv, PeerJ, ResearchSquare, SSRN and more. Searching via Europe PMC allows easy export of references in RIS or other formats.
- OSF PreprintsRepository of preprints in a wide variety of subjects.
- Research Preprints: Server ListDirectory of preprint repositories.
Theses
- NDLTD: Networked Digital Library of Theses and DissertationsA collaborative effort of the NDLTD, OCLC, VTLS, and Scirus, the NDLTD Union Catalog contains more than one million records of electronic theses and dissertations.
- ProQuest Dissertations and Theses GlobalIncludes nearly 3 million citations to dissertations and theses from 1861 to the present and over 1 million full-text dissertations available for downloading. International coverage but with North American emphasis.
- UBC Library Guide: Theses and DissertationsA research guide for locating theses and dissertations from UBC, British Columbia, Canada, and International databases and repositories.
- UBC Theses and DissertationsUBC graduate theses and dissertations are available through the Open Collections portal dating back to 1919.
Standards and Patents
Standards
Standards are agreed-upon specifications and guidelines for the performance, operation or composition of a product or process. You can find more information about standards and standard databases in the UBC Standards Research Guide.
- IEEE Xplore Digital Library This link opens in a new windowThe IEL database provides fulltext access to more than 140 technical journals, over 1000 standards, and approximately 900 annual conference proceedings published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
- Techstreet This link opens in a new windowOnline access to selected ISO Standards and a selection of other standards from AASHTO, IEC, ASME, and BSI.
Patents
Most patent offices provide access to patent documents via freely available databases. Patents contain descriptive and useful technical information (including drawings or diagrams) that may not be found elsewhere. They also cite references that can serve as additional sources of information. Patents assist in both design and academic research.
Find more information about patents and patent databases in the UBC Patent Research Guide. Below are some examples of patent databases.
- Canadian Patents Database (CIPO)Canadian patent records, 1869 to present; full-text documents starting with 1920 to present.
- Espacenet (European Patent Office)International patent database containing 110+ million patents from more than 80 national and regional patent offices and over one million non-patent literature references. (Recommended).
- United States Patent Databases (USPTO)U.S. patents, 1790 to present and published applications, 2001 to present. Patents prior to 1976 can be retrieved by number, date and classification. TIFF viewer required to view/print patent documents.