Qualitative Research
What is Grey Literature?
Grey literature is generally material not published commercially or indexed by major databases.
A more complete definition is information "produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in electronic and print formats not controlled by commercial publishing i.e. where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body." (http://www.greynet.org/)
Based on University Libraries, University Washington http://guides.lib.uw.edu/hsl/qualres/grey
What Does Grey Literature Include?
Reports, preprints, working documents, research papers, theses and dissertations, clinical trials, bibliographies, newsletters, patents, statistical documents, white papers, pamphlets, informal communication (e.g., blogs, podcasts, email), and more.
Invisible Web
(Only SOME of the Invisible Web [grey box] material is available via Pacific Universities Libraries databases and sites listed on this guide.)
Data from P. Gil, "What is the invisible web?" Dec. 2010. Schematic by N. Tann, Goshen College, March 2011.