Gray literature is research that is disseminated without being published by commercial publishers. It includes theses and dissertations, white papers, government, organization, and industry reports, conference proceedings, raw data, and more. Comprehensive searches in the health sciences often include gray literature, as it can provide important context, perspectives, and data outside traditional publishing.
1. Ask yourself "who cares enough to collect this information?". This question can help you determine where to start your searching. For example, who would care enough to collect information on graduate nursing students? The answer could include "other graduate nursing students" (look for theses and dissertations), "nursing education organizations" (look up major nursing education organizations like CCNE), or "government education agencies" (look at the Department of Education).
2. Spend time "learning your area." Depending on your interest and future research, different types of gray literature will be more or less relevant to you. Spend some time learning about major organizations or government agencies that could be connected to your work. You can also check for references in systematic reviews you find to see if they cite any gray literature.
3. Use Google search limiters. Google has all sorts of advanced search tools. One that works great with gray literature is limit your search to a particular website using "site" (for example: "diabetes" site:cdc.gov). You could also limit to particular domains, like .gov, .edu, and .org.
