Keith G Jeffery Director, IT Grey Literature The Process and Quality Issues Keith G Jeffery

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 2 Grey Literature: Process & Quality Agenda What is Grey Literature Process Quality Grey Literature and OA Grey Literature and CRIS

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 3 Grey Literature: Process & Quality What is Grey Literature? That which is not ‘white’ –i.e. that which has not passed through a formal academic review procedure for quality and acceptability In fact commonly it is –the IP (intellectual property) –the ‘know how’ Of an organisation And is thus more valuable than the ‘white’ literature –which ‘gives away’ the IP

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 4 Grey Literature: Process & Quality Examples PhD Thesis Workshop Reports –Or unrefereed conference material Technical reports –May be later published as refereed papers –Possibly after revision Seminar materials Learning Materials Masters Thesis Technical manuals, instructions –Usually version controlled Records of management decisions –Policy documents –Meeting minutes, agendas Marketing material –Usually version controlled Computer software Data not validated independently Art artifacts Popular articles, interviews, presentation

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 5 Grey Literature: Process & Quality Annexe text images softwar e data Annexe text images softwar e data An Example: Internal Report Internal working report Internal working report Workshop paper Workshop paper Internal review Internal report Internal report external review informal Published peer- reviewed paper Published peer- reviewed paper formal informal

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 6 Grey Literature: Process & Quality Example: Doctoral Thesis Doctoral Thesis Published peer- Reviewed paper Published peer- Reviewed paper extract aggregate The whitest of the grey? (double review)

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 7 Grey Literature: Process & Quality GL Questions (Greynet.org) 1. What is the definition of grey literature? 2. How is grey literature best described? 3. Once grey literature is indexed and referenced, does it cease to be grey? 4. Should grey literature be free to access? 5. Is grey literature subject to a review process? 6. Is the content of commercially published documents superior to grey? 7. Does grey literature constitute a field in information studies? 8. Should the average net-user recognize the term grey literature? 9. What problems currently face grey literature? 10 What is the impact of grey literature?

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 8 Grey Literature: Process & Quality GL Answers (Greynet.org) The responses to these questions can be found on

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 9 Grey Literature: Process & Quality Agenda What is Grey Literature Process Quality Grey Literature and OA Grey Literature and CRIS

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 10 Grey Literature: Process & Quality The Process

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 11 Grey Literature: Process & Quality CCLRC Researcher View

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 12 Grey Literature: Process & Quality CCLRC Publisher View

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 13 Grey Literature: Process & Quality CCLRC Information Service View

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 14 Grey Literature: Process & Quality CCLRC Facility Provider View

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 15 Grey Literature: Process & Quality Grey Process Issues Is the process documented? Does it include review? –Internal, informal  External, formal –By whom? –With what role? Is the provenance documented? Are versions documented?

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 16 Grey Literature: Process & Quality Agenda What is Grey Literature Process Quality Grey Literature and OA Grey Literature and CRIS

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 17 Grey Literature: Process & Quality Grey Literature Quality Data (the document or object) –The quality is determined by Provenance Review process –(internal, [formal | informal]) Subsequent reconsideration (annotation)

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 18 Grey Literature: Process & Quality Grey Literature Metadata Quality Metadata –The quality of the metadata determines Recall and relevance in retrieval Access and rights management

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 19 Grey Literature: Process & Quality Grey Literature Process Quality Collected as early as possible in the process by people intimately related to the subject Quality checked within the process –ISO9001 –Some grey literature critically important for business continuity / risk management

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 20 Grey Literature: Process & Quality Grey Quality Issues Is it made available or not (confidentiality)? Is the provenance documented? Is the metadata OAI-PMH compliant? Is the object reviewed? –Internal, informal  External, formal –By whom? –With what role?

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 21 Grey Literature: Process & Quality Agenda What is Grey Literature Process Quality Grey Literature and OA Grey Literature and CRIS

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 22 Grey Literature: Process & Quality GL and OA Grey Literature is increasingly stored in an institutional OA repository by the organisation where it is generated Access: metadata must be in standard form and of high quality (minimally OAI-PMH) –Ease of access: recall, relevance –Access restrictions: rights, security Object quality: measured by hyperlinks from other objects, accesses or downloads

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 23 Grey Literature: Process & Quality GL and Green OA Harnad’s ‘green’ OA irrelevant to grey literature –defined as parallel deposit of white literature So an OA Institutional repository consists of: –‘Harnad’ green –Grey

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 24 Grey Literature: Process & Quality Grey OA Issues Measuring impact of grey Version management Access management Rights management How to distinguish in the repository grey from green?

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 25 Grey Literature: Process & Quality Agenda What is Grey Literature Process Quality Grey Literature and OA Grey Literature and CRIS

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 26 Grey Literature: Process & Quality GL and CRIS CERIF places the grey literature in context A Result_Publication or Product linked to: –Project, Person, OrganisationalUnit –Event –Facility, equipment –Prize/Award Which allows the end-user to assess better relevance, quality of grey material Which allows research managers to measure output of grey material

© Keith G Jeffery Director, IT 27 Grey Literature: Process & Quality GL and CRIS CERIF (together with a repository) solves most of the issues documented previously By providing a structured, logical context for the grey object Within the R&D process Allowing the end-user to determine quality