Quarterly Newsletter
Vol. 6, No. 3, 1997
ISSN 0929-0923
Preview of the Luxembourg Conference
GreyNet's Full-Blown Website
Grey and Black on the Internet
GOO - Shared Subject Indexing
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Editorial Address
Preview of the Luxembourg Conference
Third International Conference on Grey Literature
November'97 will be a very exciting time to be in Luxembourg, especially while this country holds the European Presidency. Since the last issue of this newsletter, further developments have been made in the preparation for this truly International Event. The GL'97 Program Committee consisting of delegates from the CEC, CRL, EAGLE, FID, GreyNet, IFLA, INIST and JST met at the European Centre in Luxembourg to finalize the Program and Agenda. Since then, the GL'97 Pre-Program has been published and is now available in both printed and electronic formats. Also, the Inaugural Speakers for the Opening Session have been formally invited by Mr. Mario Bellardinelli of the Directorate XIII/D2, Chairman of the GL'97 Program Committee.
In order to provide you with a preview of the content of GL'97, three synopses of papers have been selected, here. Each has been taken from one of the three sessions, which comprise the overall conference program.
SESSION ONE: Grey Literature for Technology Transfer and Innovation
Grey Literature and Innovation : A Strategic Approach by Joaquim de Witte, Senter, An Independent Division of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, The Hague, The Netherlands |
In this paper grey literature is discussed in the context of knowledge transfer aimed at industrial innovation. The scope of knowledge transfer reaches beyond the more commonly used notion of technology transfer. It also concerns knowledge about management, marketing, markets, government regulations and many other factors affecting industrial performance.
The knowledge required by companies for innovation is obtained from a multitude of sources including universities, research institutes, government offices, internal expertise, suppliers, clients, engineering consultants and even competitors.
Grey literature is very important for industrial knowledge transfer. Examples of relevant grey literature include:
- public reports on results from EC-funded R&D projects;
- patent information;
- product or company brochures;
- technical documentation;
- government publications concerning industrial developments, research programmes and government policy or regulation.
In the context of innovation, grey literature is used in the following ways:
- as a guideline for technical and managerial problem solving and decision making;
- to trigger new ideas for design, engineering, production, distribution or marketing;
- as information source to trace potential partners, consultants or sub-contractors for research, product or business development.
SESSION TWO: Redesigning and Evaluating GL Products and Services
Survey and Collection of Technical Reports published by Japanese Private Companies by Hisako Ogawa and Tetsu Ono Japan Science and Technology Corporation - JST, Tokyo, Japan |
Technical reports provided by Japanese private companies fall under the category of grey literature publications. They are usually not-for-sale or hardly available through conventional and commercial distribution channels. Due to insufficient information published by the private sector, it has been very difficult to locate and obtain these reports. Therefore, JST conducted a survey involving 1,582 Japanese companies listed in stock exchanges from January through March of 1996. The aim was to investigate the publishing situation and collect additional literature on technical reports.
Outline of survey results:
- Response rate: 64.6% (1,022 of 1,582 companies)
- NE of companies publishing technical reports: 275 (26.9%)
- NE of technical reports issued: 349
Based on the survey results, additional information from newly collected publications has been added to JST databases, and it is worthwhile to mention that the publications themselves were not previously collected by JST.
SESSION THREE: Education and Training in the Deployment of GL
Teaching and Exposing Grey Literature: What the Information Profession Needs to Know by Julia Gelfand, University of California - UCL, Irvine, USA |
Grey literature takes on new meanings with publishers and individuals creating new products and releasing information in different ways. With several choices of release usually available in different formats, the difficulty once asso-ciated with publishing grey literature and the enormous expenses predicted for a relatively low volume, electronic publishing via html and pdf has created new models and opportunities. Information access in the global economy forces the information professional to be better aware of a wider spectrum of information, including the traditional grey literature. As the hues change, the literature takes on a new sense of value.
This paper will explore different models to incorporate grey literature in basic and advanced information retrieval and subject area biblio-graphy, how it can be introduced to information specialists and how better training and exposure can reduce the obstacles in utilizing it more widely. By concentrating on education & training of information professionals, grey literature will have a more prominent role in a range of information access and dissemination activities.
GreyNet's Full-Blown Website
Operational: Mid-September'97
What's green & orange and can be accessed world-wide?
Well we invite you to take a look for yourself.
GreyNet's Homepage and Gopher site has been expanded to a full-blown website with easy site instructions. The screen offers dual frame operability, where you navigate on the left-hand side and are afforded full text and graphics on the right-hand side of the electronic highway.
Special thanks to Alexicon, the Electronic Documents and Information Service of the Netherlands Royal Library. It is through this service that GreyNet will continue to be made available on the Internet. Last, but not least, our congratulations to Jerry Frantzen, GreyNet's Web-Master. "Jerry has taken a primarily text oriented Gopher structure rooted in Grey Literature and turned it into a unique and colourful interactive resource for both producers and users of this information."
Grey and Black on the Internet
Ed. by Domenic Fuccillo, Council of Biology Editors
The "grey literature" - defined here as reports, proceedings, and other technical material usually distributed in limited quantities by clearing-houses, sponsors, and individuals rather than by traditional publishers - has lived more or less peaceably for some years alongside the "black/white" publications that most CBE members edit, here referred to as "published literature". At one time, journal editors, scientists, and traditional librarians looked askance at these products because of their dubious legitimacy (because they may not have been reviewed, or contained preliminary or rejected material) and the difficulty in evaluating, cataloging, and retrieving them. Now that the grey and black literature appears in both electronic and print forms, it seemed worthwhile to explore present attitudes toward the grey literature and the community structure of grey and black/white forms of scientific information.
Dominic Farace, Grey Literature Network Service (GreyNet), organizes national and international conferences on grey literature, the most recent one at the University of Maryland, where I interviewed him. CBE members Douglas Fisher, BIOSIS, and Lois Ann Colaianni, National Library of Medi-cine, agreed to join the interview later by e-mail. Colaianni added that her comments were integrated with those of her colleagues - Judith Eannario, Jane Bouton, and Duane Arenales.
What significant changes have you seen recently in the production of and access to grey literature?
Farace: The quantity of scientific information increases in both electronic and print forms of published and grey literature. Commercial publishers like Elsevier now publish on CD-ROM and advertise at Websites, as do corporations, governments, and international organizations that produce annual reports, databases, fact sheets, and other grey material. These media now contain an enormous brew - some of it once considered sensitive or privileged. Another change lies in searching and using the information. The techniques are becoming more alike and standardized. In the early stages of using new technology, researchers led the way by constructing Websites and knowing how to access information because they had funds libraries didn't have. In past 5 or so years, librarians have been coming back strong and have invested in new technology because they recognize the lifeline of their institutional role in knowledge generation and transfer and their library turf as information organizers. They also learned from the researchers to appreciate the grey literature and are able to apply to it new and traditional skills that researchers do not have to index and search for information their clients want.
Colaianni: It is true that the World Wide Web has made a great deal of grey literature accessible to more researchers since the source of the literature can make it directly available without being dependent upon middle "men". Nevertheless, there is a great deal of instability (temporary unavailability) of sites on the Web. Sources appear and disappear or change their URLs. Documents appear without dates or the name and title of the person or persons responsible for preparing them. The text is modified without notice producing different versions with the "same" citation information. The integrity of the content is a concern.The availability of such literature on the Web will be applauded by those with access but not by those without, and the move from printed publications to electronic-only availability disenfranchises some, especially those in rural areas, developing countries, and less computer-literate users.Many organizations who rush to put their documents on the Web do not give a great deal of thought to the organization, content and format of the material. Print publications often were seen by editors who brought some sense to the content but organizations now may not continue to see the value in producing a finished publication before publishing it on the Web. It actually takes more planning to organize and publish an electronic-only work than it does to publish a print version, since additional thought is required about how to aid the user in navigating through screens to locate needed information.Access to print grey literature remains a problem. Sometimes these materials can only be obtained by attending a conference, where they are distributed or by making a substantial effort to identify, locate, and contact the individual or sponsoring organization that publishes them. Another issue is user education about how to use the Web and about the potential value of grey literature.
Fisher: Computer technology, particularly the Internet and associated search engines, has dramatically increased visibility of and access to such works. I personally doubt that the volume of grey literature has changed, because the volume of it depends primarily on the number of people available to generate it. While one might be tempted to argue that there is more (on a per person basis) being produced due to technology making it easier to generate, the pace of life has increased significantly, thus increasing the number of tasks available to fill one's time and decreasing time available to generate grey literature.
Scientific editors and publishers stress peer-reviewed, quality material. How does the quality of grey literature fit into this picture?
Farace: The quality of the grey and published material is being determined by its use. Designers of Websites select materials according to certain criteria. The number of "hits" tell them which material is used and which is unused. Important selection criteria include the time and money available to place material into electronic or print media. If a particular resource is not used, then time and money will not be invested in maintaining its existence on the Internet. A researcher will look at both grey and published literature to find the maximum amount of relevant material on a particular topic. Users must evaluate the search result, whether peer-reviewed or otherwise, just as they do printed material. Use of information demonstrates its value.
Colaianni: Some of the issues above address quality of the grey literature. "Use" does not seem to be a good measure of quality. To make an analogy, the most heavily read newspaper is not necessarily the paper of the highest quality. From a research perspective, the most critical problem vis-à-vis quality is that much of the grey literature is not peer reviewed or refereed in any way. There is a need for documentation to indicate under what conditions and with what study and expertise a document was prepared. NLM feels strongly that publications should indicate the author, title, publishers, date and something about the author's qualifications.
Fisher: The key phrase here is "quality material". I do not think it is useful to use the word quality when discussing peer-reviewed papers and the grey literature. Peer-reviewed papers by definition are considered quality reports, else they would not be published. However, the historical record contains examples of peer-reviewed papers later shown to be flawed, wrong, or fraudulent. Grey literature, on the other hand, probably contains information that had been peer-reviewed and rejected as well as information never formally reviewed. The historical record contains examples of theories and findings that did not fit the scientific dogma of the day and were not accepted for publication in prestigious scientific publications of the time. Such works remained part of the grey literature for years before the rest of the discipline had progressed far enough that the intellectual leap could be reported in the approved fashion.
What is the role of grey literature in the biological and biomedical sciences?
Farace: Historically, grey literature was significant in horticulture and agriculture because of funded programs in developing countries, especially in Africa and Latin America, and it is still important today. The prevalence of grey literature depends on the "affinity" of the user community. Organizations decide what to place on home pages; and the American Medical Association, for example, may use only peer-reviewed publications. Others may legitimize grey literature or a mixture of both grey and black/white material. A researcher in biology and medicine, as in other fields, probably searches more than one domain. According to a 1993 survey carried out among grey-literature conference goers, only publishers stated that production of literature was their sole task. The other respondents produced material, some of it grey, because an individual or group wanted it. The publishers had a single affinity with literature; namely, they published it, for which they were gainfully employed. Other professionals also are involved in publishing grey literature, but this is not their primary task. They are often referred to as corporate authors rather than publishers. Those in this group, which includes librarians, documentalists, and other information inter-mediaries, have a multiple affinity with grey literature. Often their interest is not shared by their colleagues, and they are not compensated commensurately for the time and expertise they invest in grey-literature related tasks.
Colaianni: The grey literature has been most useful in fields such as health services research, standards and guidelines, health policy, health economics, public health, health activities in developing countries, environmental health, military medicine and emerging technologies. Health policy is especially important since committee reports are useful in this field. Grey literature also appears to be a fertile sources for historians, especially social historians. It is to be hoped that those interested in grey literature will help the creators to bring some bibliographic control to the "publications" to help ensure that researchers can find them, identify them, and understand the rigor with which the publication was created.
Fisher: I believe the peer review process yields an identifiable body of literature which is very, very helpful, particularly to those seeking information in areas outside of their area(s) of expertise. When I read a such a paper, I read it with a comfort level I do not have with the grey literature to which I look for serendipitous insight and other bits and pieces on which I might wish to follow up.
NOTE: Permission has been granted by the Editor of CBE Views to reprint the complete and unabridged text of this interview, originally published in CBE Views, Vol. 20, Nr. 3, p. 108-109, 1997. ISSN 0164-5609
GOO - Switch
Netherlands Shared Subject Indexing
The Netherlands Shared Subject Indexing (GOO) consists of two pivotal mechanisms by which the main content of a publication is indexed for subsequent online retrieval.
The first mechanism comprises a comprehensive list of controlled descriptors referred to as the GTT. The second mechanism is a classification scheme referred to as the BC.
The actual assignment of the controlled descriptors and the classifications codes is done independently. Hence, there is no predetermined link in this pivotal indexing system.
The success which this system has met among its shared users will be further augmented with the introduction of a language switch from Dutch to English within the controlled descriptor mechanism, GTT.
GreyNet has been commissioned by the Netherlands Royal Library, the coordinating body of the national GOO, to render the English translation of the GTT.
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