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Literature review

This guide will help you to plan your literature review and to adopt a systematic approach to searching the literature.

Planning your search - what to include

Grey literature general guidance

“Variously defined as unconventional literature, literature not available via traditional publishing, and publications with little or no general distribution, grey literature represents an immense stash of information that is crucial to various researchers and information professionals.”

Auger, Charles P. Information Sources in Grey Literature. London: Bowker-Saur, 1998.

Searching the grey literature may seem challenging as there are so many sources. You should search the resources that are most relevant to your systematic review.

Chapters 7 & 8 of the title below provide guidance on finding grey literature:

Grey literature sources from library catalogue

Some of our databases, depending on the discipline, index grey literature as well as journals.

Check the database scope note.

 

See also the following sources:

 

Conference proceedings

Theses and dissertations

See our Theses and dissertations webpage.

See also the full list of national and international theses databases to which we provide access. 

Further guidance for Systematic Reviews