Criminology: Grey Literature

This page helps researchers recognize grey literature, and provides links to some websites where grey literature can be found.

What is Grey Literature?

Grey Literature is material that is produced by organizations that are not considered traditional commercial or academic publishers. Grey literature does not usually undergo formal peer-review, but can still be considered authoritative depending on the publishing organization or individual’s recognized expertise. There is a lot of debate over what materials are considered grey literature; if you have any doubt if a resource you would like to use can be considered grey lit for the purposes of your assignment, contact your instructor to find out how they would classify it. This page provides some links to some general sources of grey literature, but it is by no means comprehensive.

Grey literature can include:

• Popular (non-peer-reviewed) magazine articles

• Information from think tanks, organizations, associations & research centres, e.g.:

  • Think tank reports
  • Association & organization publications
  • Business, health or academic research centre reports (n.b. not academic articles published in journals)
  • Theses and dissertations
  • Technical reports from non-government agencies
  • Conference papers & proceedings
  • Non-government organization (NGO) publications
  • Statistics, surveys, research reports from non-government organizations
  • Standards or regulations for non-government organizations (i.e. internally mandated by NGOs)
  • Annual reports from non-government organizations
  • etc.

• Government sources, e.g.:

  • Policy documents
  • Government website pages
  • Commission reports
  • Scientific / technical reports from government agencies
  • Statistics, data, surveys & research reports from government agencies
  • Laws & regulations
  • Court cases, materials & legal decisions
  • Legislative materials
  • Annual reports from government agencies
  • etc.

N.B. For help finding government information (policy, legislative materials, law, court materials, statistics & reports) from Canada (national, provincial, territorial or municipal), other countries and/or international government organizations (IGOs), please contact the Government Information Librarian, Hélène LeBlanc < hleblanc@wlu.ca >.

Some sources available through Laurier Library:

• Canada Commons - Provides access to the Canadian Public Documents Collection (CPDC)
• The Conference Board of Canada - Contains all of the Conference Board's periodical publications, research reports and economic studies.
• PAIS Index - International index to various types of publications on public/social policy and social sciences.

Freely available online:

• The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives - An independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social, economic and environmental justice.
• Canadian Council on Social Development - A not-for-profit organization that partners and collaborates with all sectors (not-for-profit, philanthropic, government and business) and communities to advance solutions to today’s toughest social challenges.
• Canadian Think Tanks (McGill University) - Document that provides an A-Z list of Canadian Think Tanks.
• The Council of Canadians - A social action organization.
• Institute for Social Research (York University) - Houses the largest university-based survey research centre in Canada.

NGO Search - This custom Google search targets non-governmental organizations. See a list of the covered URLs.

IGO Search - This custom Google search targets international governmental organizations. See a list of the covered URLs.

Criminology (& law) blogs such as:

N.B. When reading any blog posting, be aware of bias and misinformation. Check the credentials of the person posting the article (i.e. Is this a professional or academic person?) &/or, if possible, try to double check some of the statements – or ask for help from the Librarian to do so.

• Lawblogs.ca - An open directory with listings of blogs maintained by lawyers, law librarians, marketers, IT professionals or paralegals in Canada. Blogs of particular note are Michael Geist and law school faculty blogs.
• Slaw - An online legal magazine, written by and for the Canadian law community including lawyers, librarians, technologists, marketers, students, and educators.
• Canada Criminal Lawyer 
• The Criminology Post - A Criminology-Related Blog for Criminology Students (Simon Fraser University - Criminology Student Association)
• The BSC Blog (British Society of Criminology)