Characteristics:of Grey (or Gray) Literature

• Not usually available through sale
• Publication is not systematic
• May be difficult to locate
• Contains significant research information
• Includes unpublished research
• Contains high level of detail

Document types include:

• Pre-Prints
• E-Prints
• Academic Works
• Commission Reports
• Committee Reports
• White Papers
• Technical Reports
• Government Reports
• Conference Reports
• Technical Standards
• Dissertations
• Theses
• Working Papers
• Market Surveys
• Data Sets

Google Scholar searches across many scholarly Internet sources, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles.  Google Scholar is especially useful for tracking down or verifying difficult or partial citations. 

Frequently you may be required to pay a fee to access the full text of a scholarly article on Google Scholar.    However, because of your affiliation with AU and OhioLINK, Google Scholar can directly link you to many of the quality resources at no charge. When on campus, your Google Scholar search results will immediately indicate if the items are available through OhioLINK.

To show links to free OhioLINK Resources from off-campus, you will need to change Google Preferences on your computer.  

Directions:

• On the Google Scholar page, click "Scholar Preferences."  (The link is to the right of the search box.)
• In the "Library Links" box, type in "Ohiolink" and click "Find Library."
• Put check marks in the boxes that appear:

OhioLINK- Find it with OLink

Open WorldCat - Library Search

• Scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Save Preferences."
• You may now start searching for articles in Google Scholar. If an article is available full-text through one of our subscription databases, you will see a link that says "Full-Text from OhioLINK OLinks"

Google Scholar (or quick search below)