Finding Grey Literature: Evaluating Grey Literature

All information that is retrieved in any form for research must be viewed in a critical manner to ensure that it is credible. This is true with grey literature as it encompasses all forms of work, both physical and electronic.

See our guide:

• Evaluating information you find

  Learn how to critically evaluate information resources.

The following evaluation checklist, proposed by Tyndall, covers points particularly important for evaluating grey literature -

AACODS (Authority, Accuracy, Coverage, Objectivity, Date, Significance) incorporates the following ideas:

• Authority - Incorporates expertise, propriety, experience, credibility, reliability: it asks the question who is responsible for the intellectual content?
• Accuracy - Does it seem to be right? Has it used a clearly stated methodology? Has it been peer reviewed?
• Coverage - Try to be aware of any coverage limitations, stated or otherwise.
• Objectivity - This incorporates opinion, expert or otherwise. Is it balanced or does it have an unstated bias?
• Date - Does the resource have a clear date related to content?
• Significance - Is it meaningful? Does it add context?

Tyndall, J. (2008). How low can you go? Towards a hierarchy of grey literature. Presented at Dreaming 08: Australian Library and Information Association Biennial Conference, 2-5 September 2008, Alice Springs. http://hdl.handle.net/2328/3326

The above content is copied from the University of Queensland grey literature guide with permission.