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A Guide to Grey Literature: Searching for Grey Literature

Understand what Grey Literature is, academically appropriate sources of it and how to effectively search for it.

Tools to help you find GreyLiterature

Google

When using Google for a Grey Literature search you can aid your critical selection through the Advanced Search. Click on Settings:

Google - Settings

Click on Advanced search:

Google Advanced Search selection

At the top of the Advanced search page you can manipulate your search terms:

Advanced Search manipulate your terms

At the bottom of the page you can select:

  • Region, i.e. United Kingdom
  • Site or Domain to search a specific website or domain, i.e. gov.uk or nhs.uk
  • File Type to search for specific file types, i.e. PDF

You can use these options independently or in combinations to filter your results. For example you can set the Region to United Kingdom to just find results from the UK using your search terms or leave the Region set to any region and search Site or Domain using gov.uk and your terms. You can further filter any Region or Site/Domain option by limiting to PDF file type to find just PDF documents from the UK or from any webpage which has gov.uk within it's URL.

Policy Commons

A comprehensive grey literature database covering tens of millions of reports, blogs, papers, and podcasts from think tanks, IGOs, NGOs, research agencies, cities, and governments.