Grey Literature 102:
Advanced Search Strategies
for Grey Literature
Ahlam Saleh, MD, MLS
Melissa Ratajeski, MLIS, RLAT
Health Sciences Library System,
University of Pittsburgh
April 7, 2011
Overview
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Discuss the use and challenges associated with
grey literature
Review the forms of grey literature and an
approach to the search
Discuss several free resources available to locate
grey literature
Grey Literature Definition
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“that which is produced on all levels of government,
academics, business and industry in print and
electronic formats, but which is not controlled by
commercial publishers i.e. where publishing is not the
main activity of the producing body”
(Luxembourg, 1997; expanded New York, 2004)*
* GreyNet (www.greynet.org/greynethome/listserv.html)
Forms of Grey Literature
Examples:
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Reports
Conference abstracts
Dissertations & Theses
Registered trials
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Patents
Newsletters
White papers
Statistics
Forms of Grey Literature
www.greynet.org/greysourceindex/documenttypes.html
Users
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Researchers
Practitioners
Policymakers
Challenges
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Time & costs
Access to full text
Access to complete data
Finding tools
Indexing
Quality
Approach
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Define your question
Locate & prioritize resources
Conduct searches
To be covered today…
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Reports
Registered research
Regulatory data
Conference abstracts and proceedings
General resources
Reports
Syntheses
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Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
www.ahrq.gov
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CRD Reports
www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/crdreports.htm
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EPPI - Centre
http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/Default.aspx
CRD Databases
International, National, and Local Resources
NTIS Database
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Subscription & Free Access
Specific Resources
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Institute of Medicine
www.iom.edu/Reports.aspx
Rand Corporation
www.rand.org/publications/pubs_search.html
Milbank Memorial Fund
www.milbank.org
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
www.rwjf.org
Kaiser Family Foundation
www.kff.org
How to Find Organizations
Registered Research
HSRProj
http://wwwcf.nlm.nih.gov/hsr_project/home_proj.cfm
ClinicalTrials.gov
EU Clinical Trials Register
https://www.clinicaltrialsregister.eu
Manufacturer
GlaxoSmithKline
Additional Resources
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ISRCTN Register
www.controlled-trials.com/isrctn
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WHO ICTRP
http://apps.who.int/trialsearch
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NRR Archive
www.nihr.ac.uk/Pages/NRRArchiveSearch.aspx
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UKCRN Portfolio
http://public.ukcrn.org.uk/search
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NIH Reporter
http://projectreporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm
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NHS Prospero
www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO
Regulatory Data
US Food and Drug Administration
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Approval Documents
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Drugs@FDA
www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/drugsatfda
US Food and Drug Administration
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Advisory Committee - Briefing Documents
www.fda.gov/AdvisoryCommittees/CommitteesMeetingMaterials/default.htm
European Medicines Agency
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European Public Assessment Reports
www.ema.europa.eu
Conference Information
Published via
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“Stand alone” conference proceedings
Journals
Journal supplements
Approaches to Locating
1.
Search resources to find a name of conference that
is related to topic
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2.
3.
May then have to handsearch proceedings
Search resources to find individual conference
abstracts
Locate where proceedings are published for a
known conference title
PubMed
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Mostly retrieves conference information included in
journals and does not list individual paper/poster titles
PubMed
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Search syntax:
Congresses [pt]
 Congresses as Topic [MeSH]
 Overall [pt]
 Consensus development conference [pt]
 Consensus development conference, NIH [pt]
 Consensus development conferences as topic [MeSH]
 Consensus development conferences, NIH as topic [MeSH]
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Library Catalogs
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National Library of Medicine Catalog
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog
Library Catalogs
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British Library Catalogue
http://catalogue.bl.uk/F/?func=file&file_name=login-bl-list
 Choose
“Document Supply Conferences” under Catalog
subset search
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NRC Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information
http://cat.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/search/X
Scirus
http://scirus.com
Use the advanced search and select conferences
 Retrieves presentation titles from stand alone
proceedings and journals
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Other Conference Resources
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Meeting Abstracts through NLM Gateway
http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/gw/Cmd
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Association and organization Web sites
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http://dirline.nlm.nih.gov
www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/organizations/orgbytopic_a.html
General Resources
http://opensigle.inist.fr
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Also searchable through: http://worldwidescience.org/wws
NYAM Grey Literature Collection
www.nyam.org/library/pages/grey_literature_report
OAIster
http://oaister.worldcat.org
Additional Resources
Google
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Advanced Search
limit to format type (pdf)
 search within a site or domain
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Open Access
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Directory of Open Access Journals
www.doaj.org
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OpenDOAR
www.opendoar.org
Theses and Dissertations
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Networked Digital
Library of Theses
and Dissertations
www.ndltd.org
Resource Guides
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CADTH Grey Matters
www.cadth.ca/index.php/en/cadth/products/grey-matters
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GreySource Index
www.greynet.org/greysourceindex.html
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Partners in Information Access for the Public Health
Workforce
http://phpartners.org/guide.html
Search Example
Research Topic
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Should screening for gestational diabetes be
selective or universal?
 Who

should be screened?
Benefits vs cost/harm?
Select Resources
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National Guideline Clearinghouse
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CRD Health Technology Assessment Database
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CRD NHS Economic Evaluation Database
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American Diabetes Association
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American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
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ClinicalTrials.gov
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OAIster