The GreyLit Report: Understanding the Challenges of Finding Grey Literature

Searching for and finding grey literature can be difficult. Grey literature, by its nature, is not commercially published and as a result, it requires multiple search strategies to identify and curate quality literature on a subject. Our study into how researchers share grey literature (Aloia and Naughton, 2015) found that researchers speak with colleagues, subscribe to listservs/newsletters, and go to organization websites to find current grey literature. In order to better understand the needs of the health sciences research community, we interviewed GreyLit Report users about their challenges, tools and methods for finding grey literature. The Grey Literature Report (GreyLit Report), developed in 1999 by The New York Academy of Medicine, is a centralized location that makes it easier for health researchers to find grey literature in their field. Speaking directly to librarians and researchers about their needs helped us to better understand how the GreyLit Report website can be enhanced to respond to those needs. Over the course of a week, we conducted online interviews with national and international users of the GreyLit Report. Based on this study, the researchers learned how the GreyLit Report can be enhanced to better serve the grey literature community and add to the growing need for a centralized location to find grey literature. In addition, the paper provides a template for planning and reporting of grey literature searches based on extensive analysis of the research literature.