Subject guides: Business and Economics: Grey literature

Grey literature is information that is published non-commercially or remains unpublished. It is produced by organisations where publishing is not the primary activity, such as companies, universities, government departments and NGOs. Grey literature appears in many formats including reports, patents, posters, statistics, theses and working papers. Examples of grey literature appear below.

Selected examples of grey literature relevant to business and economics

Publicly listed company annual reports	Woolworths
Research papers	Reserve Bank of Australia SSRN (Social Sciences) RePEc (Economics)
Official statistics	Australian Bureau of Statistics
Publications from non-governmental organisations	Transparency International International Labour Organisation
Reports from research bodies/think tanks	The Grattan Institute APO (Analysis & Policy Observatory)
Research produced by the private sector	ANZ Bank
Reports from government agencies	Productivity Commission
Standards	Australian Accounting Standards Board

Tips for finding and using grey literature:

Identify key organisations/stakeholders relevant to your topic and visit their websites.
Perform a Google Advanced Search on the topic, using a search strategy - see How to Search.
Check the quality of the sources you find - see Evaluating Information.
Quality and authoritative online sources often include links to other quality sources.