LibGuides: Grey Literature: Sources for Grey Literature

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These databases are great places to start for finding Grey Literature! Check these sources first before diving into the other resources listed below.

Policy Commons: Global Think Tanks This link opens in a new window
A collection of research from the world’s leading policy experts, think tanks, IGOs and NGOs.
CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online) This link opens in a new window
Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) is the most comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs. It publishes a wide range of scholarship from 1991 onward that includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, proceedings from conferences, books, journals and policy briefs. CIAO is also widely-recognized source for teaching materials including original case studies written by leading international affairs experts, course packs of background readings for history and political science classes, and special features like the analysis of a bin Laden recruitment tape with video.
PAIS Index This link opens in a new window
The PAIS Archive includes carefully selected resources to help users identify and locate information about significant political, economic, social and cultural issues affecting international and local communities, countries, governments and society. Its broad topical scope and retrospective coverage complement more specialized databases that cover the humanities, health care, agriculture, sociology, history, and many other disciplines, providing historical perspective on many of the 20th century's public and social policies. Also, the PAIS Archive database contains references to monographs, periodical articles, notes and announcements, and analytics, and the original historical subject headings have been retained within the file for enhanced searching capabilities.

The Global Studies Custom Search Bar

General Sources for finding Grey Literature and Grey Literature Producing Organizations

FIND POLICY
A side project of Transparify, search think tank sites grouped by topic and location.
Open Think Tank Directory
A global collection of 2700 think tanks and related organizations.
GreySource
GreySource provides examples of grey literature to the average net-user and in so doing profiles organizations responsible for its production and/or processing. GreySource identifies the hyperlink directly embedded in a resource, thus allowing immediate and virtual exposure to grey literature.
Grey Guide
portal and repository for resources in the field of grey literature.
OpenGrey
A search portal for European grey literature. It covers Science, Technology, Biomedical Science, Economics, Social Science and the Humanities.
World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (WANGO) Worldwide NGO Directory
Search for NGO's based on location.
OpenDOAR
OpenDOAR is the quality-assured, global Directory of Open Access Repositories. You can search and browse through thousands of registered repositories based on a range of features, such as location, software or type of material held

CQ Press Public Affairs Collection This link opens in a new window
CQ Public Affairs Collection brings together CQ's storehouse of current affairs content in a fully integrated reference tool. Some subjects are advocacy and public service, education, energy, the environment, health, and transportation. Provides in-depth reporting on vital issues, statistical and historical analyses, historic documents and primary source materials, as well as a directory of key government, nonprofit, and private organizations in each of the major policy areas.
CQ Washington Information Directory This link opens in a new window
The Washington Information Directory Online Edition provides verified and updated mailing addresses, phone and fax numbers, e-mail and Web site addresses, contact names, and descriptions for thousands of federal government offices, regulatory agencies, congressional committees, judicial offices, public interest groups, nongovernmental organizations, and international organizations.
Europa World Plus This link opens in a new window
Economic, political, historical, and geographic profiles of 250+ countries and global regions. Contact information for political, business, media, and cultural agencies and officials, including 1,900 international organizations. Search or browse by country, region, organization, or people.
Gale Directory Library This link opens in a new window
Gale Directory Library provides full-text, searchable access to Encyclopedia of Associations: International Organizations and Encyclopedia of Associations: National Organizations of the US. Users can also sort and export data from the directories
GuideStar This link opens in a new window
GuideStar connects donors and grantmakers to non-profit organizations. Search for organizations to see program, financial, and operations information for non-profit organizations.

UNESCO Database of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
Contains the profiles of non-governmental organizations that have official relations with UNESCO.
UN NGO Branch - Integrated Civil Society Organizations System
The integrated Civil Society Organizations (iCSO) System, developed by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), facilitates interactions between civil society organizations and DESA. The system provides online registration of general profiles for civil society organizations, including address, contacts, activities and meeting participation.

The Global Studies Custom Search Bar

Harvard Kennedy School of Government Think Tank Search
A Google Custom Search of more than 1200 think tanks and research centers.
Non-Governmental Organizations
Custom searches to find information from NGOs created by Government Documents Round Table (GODORT)

OpenGrey
A search portal for European grey literature. It covers Science, Technology, Biomedical Science, Economics, Social Science and the Humanities.
JSTOR Open Research Reports
JSTOR hosts a growing curated collection of more than 45,000 open research reports from 175 policy institutes from around the world. These publications are freely accessible to everyone on JSTOR and discoverable as their own content type alongside journals, books, and primary sources. We update research reports on our platform each month as they become available through contributing institutes.Research reports provide current analysis on many of today’s most discussed and debated issues from a diversity of ideological and international perspectives representing 39 countries and 29 languages. A sample of topics would include climate change, border security, fake news, cybersecurity, electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, energy policy, gender issues, terrorism, remote learning, and various public health issues, including COVID-19.

OAIster This link opens in a new window
OAIster is a union catalog of digital resources. We provide access to these digital resources by harvesting their descriptive metadata (records) using OAI-PMH (the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting). Digital resources include items such as: digitized (i.e., scanned) books and articles, born-digital texts, audio files, images, movies, [and] datasets. As of July 2009, OAIster provides access to nearly 23 million records from more than 1150 contributors.

Sources of Grey Literature by type of creator

CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online) This link opens in a new window
Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) is the most comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs. It publishes a wide range of scholarship from 1991 onward that includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, proceedings from conferences, books, journals and policy briefs. CIAO is also widely-recognized source for teaching materials including original case studies written by leading international affairs experts, course packs of background readings for history and political science classes, and special features like the analysis of a bin Laden recruitment tape with video.
Policy File Index This link opens in a new window
Provides online access to abstracts and full-text articles on public policy research and analysis from think tanks, university research programs, research organizations, and publishers.

JSTOR Open Research Reports
JSTOR hosts a growing curated collection of more than 45,000 open research reports from 175 policy institutes from around the world. These publications are freely accessible to everyone on JSTOR and discoverable as their own content type alongside journals, books, and primary sources. We update research reports on our platform each month as they become available through contributing institutes.Research reports provide current analysis on many of today’s most discussed and debated issues from a diversity of ideological and international perspectives representing 39 countries and 29 languages. A sample of topics would include climate change, border security, fake news, cybersecurity, electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, energy policy, gender issues, terrorism, remote learning, and various public health issues, including COVID-19.
Think Tank Review
Repository of think tank publications on EU affairs from the Library of the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU.
PEW Research Center
Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. They cover a wide variety of topics including International Affairs, Immigration and Migration, Race and ethnicity, and Politics and Policy.
RAND
The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges. RAND's research and analysis address issues that impact people around the world including security, health, education, sustainability, growth, and development.
Open Think Tank Directory
A global collection of think tanks and related organisations
Policy Citation Index
This Web of Science database provides links between policy documents and the papers they cite, helping identify the scholarly research that influenced policy recommendations. It includes reports from hundreds of think tanks, research organizations, and advocacy groups.

Social Science Research Network (SSRN)
SSRN, formerly known as Social Science Research Network, is an open access research platform used to share early-stage research, evolve ideas, measure results, and connect scholars around the world.

Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (IDEALS) This link opens in a new window
IDEALS collects, disseminates, and provides persistent and reliable access to the research and scholarship of faculty, staff, and students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Faculty, staff, and graduate students can deposit their research and scholarship - unpublished and, in many cases, published - directly into IDEALS. Departments can use IDEALS to distribute their working papers, technical reports, or other research material.

Hypotheses, research blogs platform (part of OpenEdition)
Hypotheses brings together more than 3,000 research notebooks led by a community of notebook makers from all countries. All content is freely accessible.

Hypotheses hosts different types of notebooks: researcher's notebook, field notebook, seminar notebook, watch notebook, etc. The platform itself is organized into linguistic subdivisions that correspond to communities of French-speaking, German-speaking and Spanish-speaking bloggers.

GuideStar This link opens in a new window
GuideStar connects donors and grantmakers to non-profit organizations. Search for organizations to see program, financial, and operations information for non-profit organizations.

Democracy's Library This link opens in a new window
Democracy's Library brings together more than 700 collections from over 50 government organizations, archived by the Internet Archive since 2006. With more than half a million documents (and counting) from local, regional, and national governments.

GovInfo
GovInfo is a service of the United States Government Publishing Office (GPO), which is a Federal agency in the legislative branch. GovInfo provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.
United Nations Digital Library
The online catalog of UN documents and publications. The Digital Library includes UN documents, voting data, speeches, maps, and open access publications. The platform provides access to UN-produced materials in digital format and bibliographic records for print UN documents starting in 1979. System features include linked data between related documentation such as resolutions, meeting records and voting, and refining of searches by UN body, agency or type of document.

Grey Literature by Topic

CABI Global Health This link opens in a new window
Global in scope, coverage includes agriculture, environment, veterinary sciences, plant sciences, mycology and parasitology, food science, human health and nutrition. CAB Abstracts offers extensive coverage of journal and nonjournal literature from around the world including annual reports, general reports, books, conference proceedings, field notes and more. Over 7 million records with coverage dating back to 1973. Includes over 170,000 full-text journal articles and indexing for over 10,000 academic journals, books, conference proceedings and reports. Also available on the CABI Digital Library platform.

The Community Health Online Digital Archive & Research Resource (CHODARR)
An archived virtual library of community-based and government publications related to health and social welfare policy, including grey literature, with emphasis on Vancouver-area resources and organizations. Note: This source is no longer being updated. You can browse the individual collections, or use Google's site search function to search across it. Example search in Google: site:chodarr.org AIDS

Political Risk Yearbook This link opens in a new window
An annual collection of the Group's country reports.

PolicyArchive
PolicyArchive is a comprehensive digital library of public policy research containing over 30,000 documents.

Migration Policy Institute
Reports, fact sheets, policy briefs, articles, commentaries and more on several topics related to Migration.

EIU Viewpoint: Country Analysis Advanced This link opens in a new window
Created to support country market research, this database includes In-depth analysis of current political, policy and economic trends for over 195 countries worldwide, with an 18 month outlook. Quarterly and annual statistics with at least 150 data points picked from reliable sources and reviewed by Economist Intelligence Unit analysts to provide consistent, objective and impartial coverage.
Emerging Markets Information Service (EMIS) This link opens in a new window
Formerly known as ISI Emerging Markets. Multilingual collection of news and information sources about the emerging markets of selected countries in Latin America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. Includes full-text primary news sources, financial data, statistics, and legal information. U of I users may click the "Go" button under Guest Access to start using the database, OR register a personal account for a more customized experience.
UN Comtrade This link opens in a new window
Annual international trade statistics, provided by over 200 countries, detailed by commodity and partner country to the United Nations, are stored in UN COMTRADE, a computerized data base system, all values are converted in US dollars and metric units, the coverage dates as far back as 1962. Requires username and password. Current students, staff & faculty, please email ertech @ library.illinois.edu for the login.

Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources, including U.S. Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1790. Includes current news, business information, company directories, federal and state laws, regulations, legal cases, and more.
HeinOnline This link opens in a new window
Full text image-based searchable database of legal periodicals. Database coverage for each periodical is from the beginning issue to the most current allowed under contract.

OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new window
OECD iLibrary is OECD's Online Library for Books, Papers and Statistics and the gateway to OECD's analysis and data. It replaces SourceOECD ... OECD iLibrary contains all the publications and datasets released by OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), International Energy Agency (IEA), Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), OECD Development Centre, PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), and International Transport Forum (ITF) since 1998.

OpenGrey
A search portal for European grey literature. It covers Science, Technology, Biomedical Science, Economics, Social Science and the Humanities.
National Technical Reports Library
The National Technical Information Service acquires, indexes, abstracts, and archives the largest collection of U.S. government-sponsored technical reports in existence. The NTRL offers online, free and open access to these authenticated government technical reports
Science.gov
Science.gov searches over 60 databases and over 2,200 scientific websites to provide users with access to more than 200 million pages of authoritative federal science information including research and development results.

USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse
Search 50 years worth of USAID project records and other related documents on a variety of topics.
The World Bank Research and Publications
Data, research and reports on topics related to poverty and development.

OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new window
OECD iLibrary is OECD's Online Library for Books, Papers and Statistics and the gateway to OECD's analysis and data. It replaces SourceOECD ... OECD iLibrary contains all the publications and datasets released by OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), International Energy Agency (IEA), Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), OECD Development Centre, PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), and International Transport Forum (ITF) since 1998.

Eldis
Eldis supports free and open access to useful and relevant research on global development challenges.

Grey Literature by Document Type

Data-Planet Statistical Datasets This link opens in a new window
Provides access to statistical data produced by U.S. Federal agencies, States, private organizations, and major intergovernmental organizations. There are up to 2 billion charts, maps, views, rankings, time series and tables available for use in the Data-Planet repository. Data-Planet Statistical Datasets offers powerful capabilities to compare & contrast multiple data series, perform statistical calculations on the data, and customize output views.
Proquest Statistical Datasets This link opens in a new window
Provides access to statistical data produced by U.S. Federal agencies, States, private organizations, and major intergovernmental organizations. There are up to 2 billion charts, maps, views, rankings, time series and tables available for use in the Data-Planet repository. Data-Planet Statistical Datasets offers powerful capabilities to compare & contrast multiple data series, perform statistical calculations on the data, and customize output views.
ProQuest Statistical Insight (Statistical Universe) This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Statistical Insight not only encompasses a world of statistical information using one common interface, but it takes you directly to the data you need. Instead of relying on the limited capabilities of free-text searching, which is particularly ineffective with the tabular format of statistical data, or wading through large text documents only to find it does NOT have the statistics you need, ProQuest Statistical Insight allows you to go straight to the tables, or to easily find the right publication with the right key tables.
Roper Center for Public Opinion Research This link opens in a new window
The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, currently located at Cornell University, is one of the world’s leading archives of social science data, specializing in data from public opinion surveys. The data held range from the 1930s to the present. Most of the data are from the United States, but over 50 nations are represented. It contains over 17,000 datasets. The iPOLL databank offers access to nearly half a million survey questions and answers asked in the US by more than 150 survey organizations. Direct links are given to study documentation and datasets ready for instant access and express downloading through RoperExpress. Users will need to register with their UIUC email address for full access. Use the "Login" button at the upper right and find University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the dropdown to register.
Statista This link opens in a new window
Provides access to statistics and studies gathered by market researchers, trade organizations, scientific publications, and government sources on over 600 industries.
Statistical Abstracts of the World This link opens in a new window
This collection includes tables and covers compendia from more than 70 countries and international government organizations, providing rich insight into everyday life, social conditions, economics and trade, and more.

JSTOR Open Research Reports
JSTOR hosts a growing curated collection of more than 45,000 open research reports from 175 policy institutes from around the world. These publications are freely accessible to everyone on JSTOR and discoverable as their own content type alongside journals, books, and primary sources. We update research reports on our platform each month as they become available through contributing institutes.Research reports provide current analysis on many of today’s most discussed and debated issues from a diversity of ideological and international perspectives representing 39 countries and 29 languages. A sample of topics would include climate change, border security, fake news, cybersecurity, electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, energy policy, gender issues, terrorism, remote learning, and various public health issues, including COVID-19.
Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports
CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff to congressional committees and Members of Congress and prepares thorough research reports on a wide variety of topics including Foreign Affairs, Defense, Energy, Health Care, Trade and more. Includes country backgrounds and their relations with the US.

Access World News This link opens in a new window
Access World News from NewsBank provides full-text information and perspectives from over 600 U.S. and over 700 international sources, each with its own distinctive focus offering diverse viewpoints on local, regional and world issues. Date coverage varies with individual newspaper
PressReader This link opens in a new window
PressReader provides online access to over 700 newspapers from more than 55 countries, displayed in their original format and accessible by country, language, or title. The PressReader App is available for reading papers on tablet devices. Formerly Library PressDisplay.

Statesman's Yearbook, The This link opens in a new window
Covers key historical events, population, city profiles, social statistics, climate, recent elections, current leaders, defence, international relations, economy, energy and natural resources, industry, international trade, religion, culture, and diplomatic representatives, as well as fact sheets for countries world wide. Browse by places, people, international organizations, or abbreviations.
World of Learning This link opens in a new window
A collection of databases covering a range of topics, with links to Europa World, World Who's Who, the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online, and the IISS Armed Conflict Database. Includes directory with profiles of learned societies, museums, libraries, research institutions, and universities worldwide, including names, principal personnel, activities and publications, addresses, etc.
Columbia Gazetteer of the World This link opens in a new window
Geographical encyclopedia of names, descriptions, and characteristics of places in the world. Entries include: demography; physical geography; political boundaries; industry, trade, and service activities; agriculture; cultural, historical, and archeological points of interest; transportation lines; longitude, latitude, and elevations; distance to relevant places; pronunciations; official local government place-names and changed or variant names and spellings.

How to Find Conference Proceedings
by Teaching, Learning, and Academic Support Library Last Updated Jan 19, 2023 106 views this year

Conference Citation Index This link opens in a new window
Conference Proceedings Citation Index helps researchers access the published literature from conferences, symposia, seminars, colloquia, workshops, and conventions worldwide.
ProceedingsFirst This link opens in a new window
Contains citations to proceedings of every congress, symposium, conference, exposition, workshop and meeting received at The British Library from October 1993 to the present.

Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (IDEALS) This link opens in a new window
IDEALS collects, disseminates, and provides persistent and reliable access to the research and scholarship of faculty, staff, and students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Faculty, staff, and graduate students can deposit their research and scholarship - unpublished and, in many cases, published - directly into IDEALS. Departments can use IDEALS to distribute their working papers, technical reports, or other research material.
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses This link opens in a new window
PQDT is a collection of citations to dissertations and theses worldwide from 1861 to the present day. Full-text is available for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and some of the older graduate works. PQDT is also the official digital dissertations archive for the Library of Congress. Also included are the citations to British and Irish dissertations and theses (PQDT: UK & Ireland) since 1761 and abstracts for content since 1986.

Note: UIUC masters theses are not in PQDT. They are only found in IDEALS or in the library catalog.

Hypotheses, research blogs platform (part of OpenEdition)
Hypotheses brings together more than 3,000 research notebooks led by a community of notebook makers from all countries. All content is freely accessible.

Hypotheses hosts different types of notebooks: researcher's notebook, field notebook, seminar notebook, watch notebook, etc. The platform itself is organized into linguistic subdivisions that correspond to communities of French-speaking, German-speaking and Spanish-speaking bloggers.