Grey literature: handle with care?

This module continues to teach me new terms and expressions for things I previously never really thought about. The latest of these is "grey literature". The recommended articles and my further reading show that the definiton of grey literature seems to still be evolving but the following characteristics are usually mentioned:

• Grey literature is not published for commercial purposes.
• Grey literature is not always easy to obtain.
• Grey literature is not necessarily quality controlled through a peer review process.

These points could lead one to question what the actual value of grey literature is. I attended a conference last week where some very interesting points were made in Powerpoint presentations - if I were to quote from these this would then qualify as grey literature. Another potential source of grey literature I can see also being useful for me is my own previous unpublished research.

I think that depending on the topic it is more or less likely that grey literature will play a role. If a research area is still relatively young or not formally organised then a reliance on grey literature would seem more likely as there may be a lack of professionally published material.

The factor of quality is something that also concerns me. Grey literature is not subjected to the same checks and controls as journal articles or books. Is it safe to take grey literature at face value or should we, as researchers, be extra sceptical about using it?

In my literature review I definitely will not ignore grey literature but I think I will be considering all of my sources more carefully in the future to ensure the reliability is as high as possible. One thing I will definitely keep in mind is that if I publish any of my thoughts or writings online (like this blog) and they were quoted by someone else that would also qualify as grey literature. Does that mean that my writing is of any lesser quality? Hopefully not.

Sources:

Coad, J. (2006). Searching for and using grey literature.
http://www.nursingtimes.net/searching-for-and-using-grey-literature/201505.article [accessed 13.11.2012]

Knopf, J.W. (Undated). Doing a literature review. http://cas.buffalo.edu/classes/psc/fczagare/PSC%20504/Knopf.pdf [accessed 13.11.2012]

Tyndall, J. (2008). How low can you go?: Toward a hieracrchy of grey literature. http://cas.buffalo.edu/classes/psc/fczagare/PSC%20504/Knopf.pdf [accessed 13.11.2012]