About this Resource
How systematic should you be?
The stages of a systematic review
1. Produce a review protocol / plan
2. Assemble a review group / advisory group
3. Formulate review question(s)
4. Conduct a thorough search
5. Select relevant studies
6. Appraise the quality of studies
7. Extract information from individual studies
8. Synthesise studies
9. Report what is known and not known
10. Inform research, policy and practice
Search for 'grey' literature 


Systematic reviews are not restricted to papers published in the ‘top’ journals. ‘Grey literature’ refers to texts that cannot be located easily via databases and includes material such as technical reports, working papers, conference proceedings, pre-prints and statistical documents.  These texts are often included in systematic reviews to help overcome publication bias and the file drawer problem (where researchers file away studies with negative or neutral outcomes as they are more difficult to publish).  Though not technically 'grey' literature, books and book chapters are also listed here as they are often diifcult to locate.

You can search for the working papers at the Social Science Research Network (SSRN).  Google Scholar is also a good way of locating grey literature.

Please give details of potential sources of information to be included in the review and include this table in your protocol/plan:   

Information type

 

Include Y/N

Reason for inclusion / exclusion

How will texts be located?

Journals not cited in the databases

 

 

 

Conference papers

 

 

 

Books

 

 

 

Book chapters

Working papers or unpublished papers

 

 

 

Documents on the internet

 

 

 

Reports from relevant institutions: companies, public bodies etc

 

 

 

technical reports

 

 

 

Statistical documents

 

 

 

Doctoral theses

Others… please list

 

 

 

 To download and use this document – click  here

Make a list of the articles that you find by searching the 'grey' literature and include this table in your protocol/plan.

List of articles

Number of papers

Journals not cited in the databases

 

1.

2.

n.

 

Conference papers

 

1.

2.

n.

 

Books

 

1.

2.

n.

 

Book chapters

 

1.

2.

n.

 

Working papers or unpublished papers

 

1.

2.

n.

 

Documents on the internet

 

1.

2.

n.

 

Reports from relevant institutions: companies, public bodies etc

 

1.

2.

n.

 

Technical reports

 

1.

2.

n.

 

Statistical documents

 

1.

2.

n.

 

Doctoral theses

 

1.

2.

n.

 

Others... please list

1.

2.

n.

 Total number of articles located through searching the 'grey' literature

 

To download and use this document – click  here