A conference proceeding is the published record of a conference, congress, symposium, or other meeting sponsored by professional association or society. Proceedings typically include abstracts or reports of papers presented by the participants. When the entire text of the papers presented is included, they are called transactions. Embase is a library database that indexes conference proceedings. In the "Advanced" search limit by "Pub. types". In Web of Science, after conducting a search, select "Proceedings Papers' and/or 'Meeting Abstracts" under "Document Types".

Previously published dissertations and theses can be a great source of inspiration for your own dissertation topic. You can explore the 3 million full-text dissertations available through ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

Government documents are an important primary source of information on a wide range of issues. Most government documents can be found through official government websites.

A preprint is an author's working version of a research manuscript prior to publication. In most cases, they can be considered final drafts. Preprints may also be referred to as working papers or unpublished manuscripts. Preprints have not gone through the peer-review process, nor have they been improved upon by the publisher (e.g., formatting, copy-editing, technical enhancements). It is very important to critically evaluatereprint publications. Because the peer review process can take three to six months, preprints are a way to provide valuable research results and discussion ahead of publication. They are also a great way to locate information on emerging or rapidly changing research topics.

Preprints are published electronically and made publicly available on large databases or preprint repositories. The techniques below describe how to locate preprints in the Libray and online. Note when searching for preprints in Library databases, you do not want to select the peer-reviewed journal limiter.

EBSCO Business Source Complete

In Business Source Complete, select the Advanced Search screen. Scroll down to Publication Type and select Working Paper.

ProQuest Central

In ProQuest Databases, select the Advanced Search screen. Scroll down to the Source Type limiter and select Working Papers.

PubMed Central

In PubMed Central, select the Advanced Search Builder. Enter the preprint[filter] command along with your topic keywords.

Web of Science

After conducting a search in Web of Science, check the Early Access box under the Quick Filters on the left-hand side of the screen.

Preprint Repositories

Research reports contain the results of research projects, investigations, and surveys, and are usually published by the funder or the body undertaking the research. They can be found by searching the websites of subject associations and research organizations.

For example, after conducting a search in Discovery, you can limit your search results to reports by using the "Resouce Type" limiter on the left-hand side of your results screen.

Social media and other Web 2.0 applications have become a valuable medium for for experts, governments and academics to publish new information and analysis outside of the traditional publishing arrangement. These sites may be useful as a way to disseminate information/results, follow experts and trending topics, and as a forum for exchange of ideas.

For a thorough overview of Web 2.0 grey literature sources, please see the Grey Literature: Grey 2.0 Guide from New York University.

Google allows you to limit your search results to a particular domain (e.g., .edu, or .gov). This can be particularly helpful if you are looking for grey literature as you are more likely to find reliable content from organizations rather than commercial content.

Look for the "site or domain" box in Googles Advanced Search options and enter the domain youd like to search, as shown below.

You can also do this by adding site:.edu (or .org, .gov, etc) to the end of your search terms in any Google search box. For example, to find articles about “ethical leadership” published on government websites, enter the terms "ethical leadership" site:.gov

Google also allows you to search for results with a specific file type (example: .pdf, .doc, .ppt, .xls). This is also helpful when looking for grey literature as government and organizational reports are more likely to be available as PDF or Word documents. Datasets may be provided as Excel files.

Look for the "file type" box in Googles Advanced Search options and select the file type you would like to search, as shown below.

You can also do this by adding filetype:pdf (or .doc, .ppt, .xls, etc.) to the end of your search terms in any Google search box. For example, to find PDF documents about “ethical leadership” enter the terms "ethical leadership" filetype:pdf.