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© Archaeological dig, Derry / Londonderry (3) by Kenneth Allen, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
Grey literature refers to any information source that is not commercially published. As these sources are dispersed and not collected by centralised publishing platforms, they are sometimes difficult to find and can be tiresome to search.
What counts as grey literature?
Why use grey literature?
The definition of grey literature is evolving but it is generally defined as content that is produced and published by non-commercial private or public entities including pressure groups, charities, societies, commercial archaeological companies, and organisations such as the Archaeology Data Service. See also Grey literature - an overview.
For Archaeology, grey literature is currently dominated by open access research articles and monographs (often older and out of print materials) produced by the leading publishers for Archaeology (e.g. Archaeopress), projects, universities, and societies/organisations. Commercial excavation units in the UK also make their grey excavation data available, often through their own websites. E.g., Oxford Archaeology.
Below are some useful sites for finding grey literature in Archaeology.
Google and Google Scholar also list grey literature. However, combing through a large number of results can often be time-consuming so only use this as a source only if you know the title of a report, working paper or conference paper.
Grey Literature adds another layer to your research and provides a different perspective thereby making your research more interesting. However, it is important to evaluate grey literature sources carefully by considering the credentials of the entity that produced the information as there may be inherent biases associated with the production of this information.