Grey (or Gray) literature can generally be described as material “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.” (4th International Conference on Grey Literature, Washington DC, 1999).
Information is generated in many ways by government, businesses, industries and academia both in print and electronic formats. Types of information included in grey literature include reports, theses, conference proceedings, specifications, standards and policies that are produced by organisations where the principle function is not publishing.
Grey literature is not produced by traditional publishers and can be more difficult to source. The internet has made this easier. Many grey literature sources can be found with an internet search. Using the Google Advanced Search, your results can be limited using the domain names, e.g. educational institutions in Australia (.edu.au) or for Australian government departments (.gov.au). Using the Field Type can also make your results more relevant - in the Google Advanced Search, limit results to .doc or .pdf for documents or .xls for spreadsheets.
Company and professional body websites can also be good sources for grey literature.
As with any information source on the internet, make sure you use credible sources.
Library databases can be used to search for grey literature such as reports, conference proceedings and theses. Individual databases can differ in the search techniques required to locate grey literature. Some useful databases through the Deakin University Library are:
Licensing information: Please read what you can and can't do with each resource in the A-Z Databases under 'License Information'. Queries can be sent to the Publisher Licensing Consultant.
A good place to look for a thesis is in the repository of the University the thesis was conducted with. Many universities have an online repository for research and theses by their staff and students. Deakin's online repository is DRO. The repositories of many of the universities in Australia can be found in Open Access Australasia.