Grey literature can be defined as material not produced by commercial publishers. It is often in the form of reports, conference proceedings, policy documents, government publications or material produced by NGOs.
It can be difficult to track down and hard to search systematically but can sometimes provide access to the most current information on a topic as it is not subject to lengthy publishing processes. However, you should be cautious about relying too heavily on grey literature as it is not peer reviewed and so the quality can vary considerably and you therefore need to ensure that you spend time assessing and evaluating any material you find.
It can be extremely difficult to track down and locate grey literature. The tabs above include some suggested starting points. Organisational websites often include a publications section or a basic search function but many can be found by carrying out a quick search on Google. The key is to become familiar with organisations in your field.
| DERA | IOE UK Digital Education Repository Archive (DERA) is a digital archive of all documents published electronically by government and related bodies in the area of education. |
| ERIC | Although predominantly a bibliographic database, ERIC also includes an array of grey literature including conference papers and policy papers. |
| OpenDOAR | A directory of worldwide academic open access repositories which enables you to search repository contents and link to full text material. |
| OpenGrey | "The System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe used to give open access to 700.000 bibliographical references of grey literature (paper) produced in Europe." |
| Overton | "The world’s largest searchable index of policy documents, guidelines, think tank publications and working papers" Create an account by completing the form before using Overton as a Cambridge University member. Use your @cam.ac.uk email address. |
| Conal Conference Alerts | Browse or subscribe to an email alert to keep up to date with events that are happening worldwide, within your research area. |
| Bibliographic Databases | Databases such as ERIC and Scopus include conference proceedings. Just limit your search by resource type. |
| Individual Conference Websites | Most conferences have their own websites and many list proceedings (but often only for a short time after the conference takes place). |
| Economic & Social Data Service | Single access point to international macro data from the World Bank, IMF, OECD, UN, Eurostat and IEA as well as UK government surveys, longitudinal surveys, qualitative data, the UK Data Archive. To access the ESDS data you must first register and select Login via UK Federation. |
| HESA | Experts in UK higher education data, and the designated data body for England. |
| OECD Education Statistics | Includes the UNESCO/OECD/EUROSTAT (UOE) database on education covering the outputs of educational institutions, the policy levers that shape educational outputs, the human and financial resources invested in education, structural characteristics of education systems, and the economic and social outcomes of education, learning and training throughout life, including on employment and unemployment. |
| UK Data Service | Service providing access to over 6,000 computer-readable datasets suitable for research and teaching purposes covering a range of different disciplines. Much data is open but for safeguarded data, registration is required. |
| World Bank EdStats | Comprehensive data and analysis source for key topics in education such as access, completion, learning, expenditures, policy, and equity. |
| DfE | Current UK Government policy |
| DERA | IOE UK Digital Education Repository Archive (DERA) is a digital archive of all documents published electronically by government and related bodies in the area of education. |
| Gov.UK publications |
Official documents and command papers. For older official government documents, see the National Archives website |
| Overton | "The world’s largest searchable index of policy documents, guidelines, think tank publications and working papers" Create an account by completing the form before using Overton as a Cambridge University member. Use your @cam.ac.uk email address. |
| Newspaper sources | Cambridge University has access to a range of newspapers online |
| Help guides |
Accessing newspaper articles on Factiva Search tip for News items using LexisNexis |
| Evaluation | Evaluation of news sources: University of Huddersfield |
Become familiar with organisations in your area and check their webpages for recent publications. If you use social media, following their Twitter account will help you to keep up-to-date with the work they are producing. Here's a few general organisations to get you started:
| OECD | "An international organisation that works to build better policies for better lives. Our goal is to shape policies that foster prosperity, equality, opportunity and well-being for all." Includes ebooks, book chapters, podcasts, working papers etc |
| Sutton Trust | Researches within the field of social mobility |
| Cambridge Theses |
From 2017 onwards Education PhD theses and other scholarly works can be accessed electronically via Apollo, the University's Repository. For hard copies of PhD theses, search iDiscover. They can be consulted in the Manuscripts Room at the University Library. For further help on searching theses, please see the University Library’s Theses & Dissertations LibGuide. |
| EtHos (British Library) | Most UK theses can be requested from here and some are available for immediate download. |
| Non-UK Theses | Electronic versions of non-UK theses may be available from the institution at which they were submitted. A good starting point for discovering freely available electronic theses and dissertations is the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD), which facilitates searching across institutions. Individual library catalogues can also be searched. |
| ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database | Includes over 2 million dissertation and theses citations and includes 1 million full text dissertations available for download. There is a charge for ordering a dissertation from this source which is payable to ProQuest. It is also possible to request copies via the University Library's Inter Library Loans Department (free of charge for full and current University of Cambridge members). |
| EBSCO Open Dissertations | Search freely available electronic theses and dissertations. U.S based and covers material from 1955 to present |