Guides: Health: Grey literature

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What is grey literature?

Grey literature falls outside of material published by commercial publishers and can provide valuable information. For example; university theses, conference proceedings, government documents, reports and policy statements.

Finding New Zealand grey literature

New Zealand health organisations
Here is a list of New Zealand health organisations, these often produce their own publications.
Google Advanced Search
Here you can specify the “site or domain” to “govt.nz” to only search many NZ government websites. Or you could put the URL for that specific website. This can be handy for government publications.
Ministry of Health – Manatū Hauora
Browse publications and policy online

NZ Research This link opens in a new window
Discover and access New Zealand’s most comprehensive selection of research papers and related resources. This site include peer-reviewed and other research from universities, polytechnics, and research organisations throughout New Zealand.

More places to find Grey Literature

International health organisations
Here is a list of International health organisations, these often produce their own publications.
Google Scholar
Easy to use search for scholarly literature for any subject. Includes grey literature, such as conference proceedings and theses.

Dimensions This link opens in a new window
Brings together publications, grants, citations, alternative metrics, clinical trials, patents and policy documents. Click ‘login’ with your VUW email address.

Evaluating grey literature

AACODS Checklist
The AACODS checklist is designed to enable evaluation and critical appraisal of grey
literature.
Rauru Whakarare Evaluation Framework
Use the Rauru Whakarare Evaluation Framework to evaluate your information sources. The concepts are woven together showing research is not a linear process. Use the questions under each concept on page 2 to help you evaluate the orokohanga (origins), mana (authority), whakapapa (background), māramatanga (content) and aronga (lens).
Medical Library Association
Guidelines for evaluating medical website content by the American Medical Library Association.

Books

Searching the Grey Literature by Sarah Bonato
Publication Date: 2018
Searching the Grey Literature discuss different aspects of grey literature, including an introduction to grey literature, the value of grey literature, search sources for grey literature and how to conduct needs assessment before beginning a grey literature search. Search techniques for identifying grey literature documents, selecting and evaluating grey literature search sources and best searching practices are also discussed in detail.