Grey Literature

Google can be used to search for grey literature by using domain-specific searches. For example, adding site:who.int/ to a search term will search the World Health Organization website, while site:.org targets organizational websites. Similarly, site:.edu can be used for educational institutes, site:.gov for government documents, and site:.mil for military documents.

Some search engines and grey literature sources, however, lack transparency in their search functionalities, making it difficult to determine how they use features like character limits and algorithms. Search strategies used in library databases may not be useful for less advanced search engines and repositories.

Google Scholar does index some grey literature, but it can be difficult to find.  Because Google Scholar is scraping grey literature information from off the internet, it is important to know these caveats when searching:

1. Inconsistent Coverage: The comprehensiveness of coverage can be inconsistent across different disciplines and publishers, leading to potential gaps in available literature.

2. Limited Advanced Filtering: Compared to specialized academic databases, Google Scholar offers limited advanced search and filtering options. This can make it challenging to narrow down search results to the most relevant materials, especially certain types of materials.  There is no way to limit to just grey literature, or books, or peer reviewed articles.

3. Lack of Transparency: Google Scholar does not give information about how its search works, making it difficult to determine how they use features like character limits and algorithms.

4. Time-Consuming: Searching for grey literature can be a time-consuming process, as it often requires sifting through a large volume of documents to find relevant information.