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
- Canada CommonsSearchable 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.
- Policy CommonsThe world's largest database for public policy
- ABI/INFORM CollectionABI/INFORM Collection is a comprehensive business database, which contains journals, business periodicals, dissertations, and country-and industry-focused reports.
- Government PublicationsUBC Library guide for finding Canadian and international government documents.
Conference Proceedings
- ScopusSearch citations and abstracts for journal articles, conference proceedings, and other resources in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. Can also be used for cited reference searches, citation analysis of research and searching by affiliation.
- Web of Science Core CollectionMultidisciplinary 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 - sources and search tips
- 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.
- ScopusIncludes preprints from 2017 onwards from: arXiv, ChemRxiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv, SSRN, TechRxiv, and Research Square
- 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.
