LibGuides: Community Development: Associations, organizations, and think tanks (grey literature)

What is grey literature?

As quoted by the Grey Literature International Steering Committee (GLISC) (see page 1), grey literature has been defined as:

Information produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in electronic and print formats not controlled by commercial publishing i.e. where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body.

In other words, the work is not tied to or controlled by commercial publishers (like the companies that publish your textbooks), who seek profit on the research or information produced. Grey literature is self-published and typically comes from:

Government agencies
Research institutes
Organizations or companies
Associations

The value of grey literature

Grey literature is an important source of information due to the uniqueness of the content that gets published. Because commercial publishers are looking to make a profit on the materials they publish, they often overlook niche research areas that serve smaller populations. Grey literature is one way to search for information in emerging or less popular research areas.
Grey literature can sometimes be more current that commercially published information. It does not go through the potentially time-consuming peer-review process undertaken by commercial publishers, and therefore has a quicker turnaround time for dissemination.
The importance of grey literature can vary between disciplines. While the health and medical fields tend to favour traditional publication methods through well-known scholarly publishers, other disciplines (like social sciences) often make more use of the grey literature route.

Think Tanks

Indigenous Governance (UVic)
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
An independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social and economic justice and one of Canada’s leading progressive voices in public policy debates.
CD Howe Institute
The C.D. Howe Institute is an independent not-for-profit research institute whose mission is to raise living standards by fostering economically sound public policies. It is Canada’s trusted source of essential policy intelligence, distinguished by research that is nonpartisan, evidence-based and subject to definitive expert review. It is considered by many to be Canada’s most influential think tank.
Caledon Institute of Social Policy
Covers a broad range of social policy areas including income security (e.g., pensions, welfare, child benefits, Employment Insurance, benefits for Canadians with disabilities), community capacity-building, taxation, social spending, employment development services, social services, disability supports and health.
Canadian Council on Social Development
A non-governmental, not-for-profit organization, whose mission is to develop and promote progressive social policies inspired by social justice, equality and the empowerment of individuals and communities.
Conference Board of Canada
The Conference Board of Canada is a Canadian not-for-profit think tank dedicated to researching and analyzing economic trends, as well as organizational performance and public policy issues.

Caution!

Evaluate what you find - Because grey literature does not go through the same peer review process of something published commercially, caution needs to be taken when selecting grey literature to use. As with any resource, even formally published ones, bias or inaccuracies can exist and it is important to have some understanding of the author/originator of the information and their stance on a particular topic or issue.
Issues around longevity - Resources openly available on the Internet can sometimes vanish, particularly if they are older items or if the website is not being kept up. If you find something useful, grab it! Typically things found in a repository or database have more longevity, but for one-off items posted on a website, that is not always the case.