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Grey literature

Find literature that is not available in traditional channels of publishing and distribution.

About reports as grey literature

Many organisations or experts in different fields produce report documents for a wide variety of purposes. If these reports are not commercially published they are considered grey literature. The grey literature reports commonly used in academic settings may be given various names such as technical reports, working papers, white papers, government reports etc.

Finding reports on the internet

Many reports are findable on the internet and using search engines is a key method to see what is available. Visit our information on Internet searching for grey literature. 

Check the following information on specific resources to find technical papers and working papers.

Technical reports as grey literature

Technical reports:

  • detail the results of a project or investigation that are submitted to the sponsor of that project
  • are produced by both government agencies and non-government sources

As well as Internet searching, some specialised resources you may want to try include:

Working papers

A working paper is a preliminary version of a paper, that may later go on to be finalised in a format such as a technical paper, academic article, book chapter, review, etc. The term working paper is most commonly used in the economics and business disciplines.

As well as Internet searching, visit our information on Working paper collections.