Hello all,
I have been advised to include the grey literature in the review for. my PhD. I am confident in how to review articles that appear in the peer-reviewed periodicals but I am struggling with the grey literature (conference papers, articles in professional bulletins or magazines etc.) As you all know, these are usually short and certainly don't match the rigour of an article published in a journal I've been trying to find help on the net, to no avail. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thank you,
Claire
First, IMO, conference proceedings papers are not considered part of grey literature; these are generally refereed, at least in some way.
If you were my student, I would recommend the following. Do not include the grey lit publications in the text of your dissertation. Instead, describe them in a table/tables in an appendix and add only a brief summary to the text of your diss. You can also compare the peer-reviewed lit with the grey lit to see if there are differences. I guess that the grey lit may be slightly ahead in terms of ideas and innovation. Good luck!
Thanks Alexander. My supervisor has suggested I DO include it, so have done so but been clear in about it's inclusion and the purpose for doing so.
Claire Ewin - Thank you for your question. I am not sure what is the topic and area of your PhD thesis. We need to include the grey literature in our search, mainly when there are not enough publications in proper literature on a topic. Also, when the area of research is newly evolving, and most work is in conference proceedings. Grey literature, may include research books such as those published by Springer (usually chapters are reviewed by the editors only). It also includes as you mentioned non-peer reviewed articles (magazines, etc.). It would help if you defined your inclusion and exclusion criteria for the search. The idea of the inclusion of grey literature should be an opportunity for your critique. They may be adding to the available evidence, or providing different aspects to the issue, lacking evidence or providing misleading information.
I recommend reading The book, Introduction to Systematic Reviews by Gough et al. It is worth reading.
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Systematic-Reviews-David-Gough/dp/1473929431
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Econ
- Innovation Economics
- Innovation