Grey lit 103
Standing Out in a Sea of Grey Literature
A Producer’s (Librarian) Perspective
Dean Giustini, MLIS, MEd
UBC Biomedical Librarian
Vancouver Canada
Wiki: http://hlwiki.ca
Twitter Hashtag:
#Greylit103
AcademyHealth GreyLit Webinar Series
12 April 2011
British Columbia (BC) Inukshuk – Inuit geographical landmark
About me, why I am here
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To present the "producer's" perspective of grey literature
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I am a Canadian health librarian •
Working at Canada’s second largest tertiary hospital
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UBC teaching hospital & medical school
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Research how to “find” things including GL
UBC Faculty of Medicine
Diamond Health Care Centre
Vancouver General Hospital
“…a landmark building”
Vancouver Canada
Webinar plan – ‘producers’
Definition: Grey literature is …
“information produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in electronic and print formats… i.e, where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body." ‐ Luxembourg, 1997 ‐ Expanded in New York, 2004
“… producers would benefit from the development, production, and distribution of guidance …
on best practices when archiving…. [and] should be encouraged to inform users of how long [their] publications are expected to be accessible … NLM can share its web archiving decisions [as it] tags Web pages with …‘Permanence Not Guaranteed’. ‐ Academy Health for the National Library of Medicine, 2006
How can producers enhance their research?
Uptake – Rigour – Preservation
Map
bibliography
Increase
visibility
Manage
preservation
Tools for producers
Ensure
reproducibility
Ensure
reliable access
The Inukshuk symbolizes ‘Someone was here’ and
‘you are on the right path’
1. Map the bibliography (uptake)
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In mapping phase, what is known about topic, locate best evidence
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Determine structure of topic, map major producers •
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Primary & secondary research (study of ‘other studies’)
Available evidence – weak or strong? coherent or fragmented? Are any datasets available – white or grey?
“The Web as Platform” – living documents & evolving ‘evidence’
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WikiDoc Living Textbook of Medicine
Means of production, massively decentralized on the web LOCATING major American & Canadian producers of GL
The Original Medical Wiki / Encyclopedia
LOCATING greylit producers using key pathways:
http://library.umassmed.edu/ebpph
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hsrproj/
http://www.academyhealth.org/
http://phpartners.org/
http://cadth.ca
http://ebling.library.wisc.edu
http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/amicus
NYAM list of greylit producers
Coming May 2011
http://hlwiki.ca
http://locatorplus.gov
2. Provide reliable access (uptake)
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Easy access to high‐quality content is a key foundation of research
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Bibliographic control, findability
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NIH / CIHR‐funded research must be accessible (e.g, PubMedCentral / Canada)
web publishing, self‐archiving, institutional repositories
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative – metadata quality, recall & relevance Digital access & rights management, e.g, security
GoogleDocs, wikis, blogs, other social media e.g, Twitter
http://www.cihr‐irsc.gc.ca
http://dublincore.org/
http://publicaccess.nih.gov/
1. Research output @ University of N.
= grey literature & data
2. Develop transparent metadata & grey data policies
3. Example of clear policies ~
open‐access repository record in
OpenDOAR.org
http://hlwiki.ca
3. Manage permanence (preservation)
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Grey literature part of evidence base & historical record
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Digital curation & long‐term stability of e‐documents
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Persistently identified e.g, URIs, DOIs
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Poor persistence leads to “404” errors (file not found) •
NYAM Library, Copyright & permissions & reproduction
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Preservation guidelines for documents & data •
GLISC Guidelines for production of reports – Nancy Style, 2007
http://www.glisc.info/nancy1.1.pdf
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NISO Z39.18 2005 – Scientific and Technical Reports • Standard ensures long‐term preservation of grey literature
http://lockss.stanford.edu/lockss/
4. Ensure reproducibility (rigour)
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Use explicit, rigorous and reproducible methods
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Consult biostatistician & methodologist
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Implement state‐of‐the‐art data management & peer review
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Consult qualified health librarian, searching increasingly complex
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Especially how to document search & apply reporting standards
Ensure reporting is robust:
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AGREE Instrument (Appraisal of Clinical Guidelines )
CONSORT Statement (Transparent Reporting of Trials)
SUPPORT Checklist (Supporting Policy Relevant Reviews & Trials)
agreecollaboration.org
consort‐statement.org/
Institute of Medicine. National Academies Press, 2011
support‐collaboration.org/
1. REPORT YOUR SEARCHES using PRISMA 2. LIST ALL SEARCH TERMS FOR GREY LIT
prisma‐statement.org/
3. ENLIST independent health librarian to review your search …
http://hlwiki.ca
5. Increase visibility (uptake & rigour)
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Raise research profile by producing exemplary work
Consistent, reliable methods influence perception of rigour
Remix / repurpose… (e.g, pre‐prints, slides, YouTube, webcast, final paper)
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Examples of style sheets
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ICMJE Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts (Vancouver style)
The Canadian Style, 2011 (Documents in French & English)
US Government Style Manual, 2008
Market & promote, knowledge‐dissemination strategies
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Develop checklist of social media, increase visibility of research
Social media + public health = public health 2.0?
NLM Style for Authors,
Editors & Publishers
In summary
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How can producers improve uptake, rigour, preservation?
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Think ‘long term’ & evidence‐based (e.g, methods, peer review, style, standards)
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Be more open, transparent & social e.g, Twitter with other producers
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Describe grey documents & ‘grey data’ for findability & permanence
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Collaborate with health librarians, develop archival, preservation practices
All materials in this workshop come under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada Licence
Thank you
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AcademyHealth (Jessica Rosen, Rebecca Singer Cohen)
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Marcus Banks, Samuel Merritt University
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Dominic Farace, GreyNet International
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Janice Kaplan, New York Academy of Medicine
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David Moher, Clinical Epidemiology, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute •
Heather G, Morrison, BC Electronic Library Network
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US National Library of Medicine
All materials (bibliography, links and preparation) for this presentation are available here: http://hlwiki.ca
Inukshuk
‘Yes, you are on the right path’’
Grey Lit 103: Standing Out in a Sea
of Grey Literature
Marcus Banks
Samuel Merritt University
April 12, 2010
Outline
• Long-standing interest in grey literature
• Beliefs as of 2011:
– Divide between grey and non-grey blurring,
and will eventually disappear
– Findability for grey literature remains a
challenge, but less so than before the Web
• Challenge to producers: treat grey lit with
equal rigor as journal articles
– LinkedIn discussion of redefining grey lit
Longstanding Interest
• NLM Associate Fellow 2002-2004
• Beliefs in this period:
– Grey lit complements peer review content
– Useful as a “check” to peer reviewed
publications because grey lit is more likely to
report studies that didn’t go as planned
Longstanding Interest
• JMLA Paper 2004:
– Argued that grey literature advocates could
benefit from lessons of open access advocacy
– Saw grey lit and peer reviewed content as
distinct parts of the publishing ecosystem
– Grey lit much harder to find
• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P
MC385294/
Longstanding Interest
• 2005 Grey Lit Conference (Nancy, France)
– A continuum between grey and peer-reviewed
content, and an eventual collapse of the
distinction as content is increasingly “born digital”
– Grey lit still harder to find, but could be gathered
into institutional repositories
• http://eprints.rclis.org/handle/10760/7287
Longstanding interest
• 2010 book chapter, “Blog posts and tweets:
the next frontier for grey literature”
• From Grey Literature in Library and
Information Studies (eds. Farace and
Schopfel)
– Findability no longer a major concern
– New challenge: preserving “grey data” such as
blog posts and particularly tweets
– Not exactly the continuum envisioned in 2005,
but categories are blurring
Challenge to grey lit producers
• Treat grey lit as “full partner” to peer
reviewed content
• Subscription barriers interfere with
distributing research in some peerreviewed journals
• Complete access to important findings in
the grey lit.
• Grey lit should adopt conventions of peerreviewed journals to increase credibility
On the horizon
• Long term: Gradual blur of categories
between peer reviewed and grey literature
• Short term: Greater rigor and prestige for
grey literature, or at least that produced by
AcademyHealth after sponsoring these
webcasts 
• Questions? Thanks very much.