Understanding Grey literature

So, you are writing your literature review or an assignment for uni on a very popular topic. Obviously, academic literature, ideally peer-reviewed and published in a respected journal, is king, but what happens if there is just nothing out there? You know there should be. I mean, everyone’s talking about it. 

This is a problem faced by many students researching topical issues, especially those surrounding current events or emerging technologies. Similarly, if you are someone very knowledgeable about a topic (maybe you worked in the industry you are studying), you may realise the academic literature feels a bit behind.

Enter "grey literature".

What is grey literature?

Grey literature is literature comprising all the alternative, good-quality sources that still provide high-quality, trustworthy information. These could be from academia, government, or industry. Unlike peer-reviewed academic literature, grey literature is often the "first" to announce something taking effect: think, a new law or treaty relevant to international politics, or the announcement of new tech. Academics don't report on these; governments and organizations do.

It is in the intersection between what is 100% academically appropriate to cite as evidence in your thesis or assignment and what you absolutely must avoid completely.

Grey literature and why to use it

Examples of grey literature

Grey literature can be considered as stemming from three key sources. Academically, multiple sources do not undergo the same process as journal articles that are still relevant: dissertations, working papers, or conference proceedings would be considered in this camp. Government is another source of grey literature: government reports, white papers (e.g., policy documents), and census data will fall into this camp. Among organizations, annual reports and websites may be considered if the organization is trustworthy.

Can I/Should I use grey literature?

In highly evolving fields, using grey literature is essential for keeping ideas current. However, that shouldn't come with a neglect of academic literature.

For instance, if your research is on AI use in education, you are far more likely to get up-to-date information from grey literature. Yet academic literature should provide you with a relevant or comparable theoretical position: is AI really a completely new thing, or can its influence be compared with the use of any other emerging technology? In that way, the academic literature provides you with concepts that you can apply AI to. Initial, even though technically out-of-date, literature on AI education can be compared with the grey literature to compare expectations and outcomes.

In this way, it is ideal for academic literature to still comprise over 50% of any review or assignment, and, for many courses, over 80%.

I would say that the use of grey literature in itself is less important than how you select and appraise what you include. A good appraisal will help you ensure the information is minimally biased and relatively trustworthy before including it, or at least well-vetted if you include it. (You can use appraisal tools like AACODS—standing for Authority, Accuracy, Coverage, Objectivity, Date, and Significance—to help you with this.)

How to cite grey literature

A common concern for many students is how to cite this type of literature. If you are using a good reference manager, the good news is that selecting the "type" of source and adding any details you are aware of should help you do this more-or-less automatically.

However, outside of this, the good news is that it follows the same or similar conventions of an article or book reference. If you are using Harvard, or an aligned referencing style like APA7th, you will still cite "author" and "date" in text if these details are known. However, many reports or websites do not have clearly named authors. Instead, the institution or organisation is named in its place. For instance: "United Nations (2017) proposed..."

For more details on this, Victoria University Library (2025) has a nice overview. (See what I did there?)

Tyndall, J. (2010). AACODS Checklist. Flinders University. [Link: Flinders Academic Commons https://fac.flinders.edu.au/dspace/api/core/bitstreams/e94a96eb-0334-4300-8880-c836d4d9a676/content].