No 4, 1996
 No 3, 1996

Quarterly Newsletter
Vol. 7, No. 1, 1998
ISSN 0929-0923

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Newsletter Coverage
An Eagle's Eye-View of GL Research
Grey Literature and Publishing
GL'99 Reset for Washington D.C.
Book Review: Knowledge Diffusion...
Policy on Collection Development
GreyNet's Publication Order Form

Annual Subscription: 20 Euros / 20 USDollars

Editorial Address

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Newsletter Coverage
Access in more than 50 Countries

Perhaps it is a shared feeling among editors of newsletters and journals, but a year is really only complete when the final issue of their serial is published. Likewise, the new year really only begins with the publication of the first issue of their serial.

This issue of NewsBriefNews marks its seventh volume. This newsletter appears in a host of formats and has reader coverage in more than fifty countries worldwide. NewsBriefNews first appeared in 1992 as a means of keeping conference participants informed of the progress of (inter)national events. Since then, the scope of this newsletter has expanded to include: book reviews, announcements, special funds, editorials, feature articles, interviews, research results, site visits, etc.

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An Eagle's eye-view of Grey Literature Research
Text based on the EAGLE-Tutorial at GL'97 by R.H.A. Wessels

Eagle, the producer of the SIGLE database (System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe), began in 1980 as an association of seven libraries and documentation centres from seven countries of the EU.

In 1992, membership was opened to all European countries. As a result eagle now has members in 15 European countries. SIGLE covers all subject areas (1/3 technology, 1/3 social and economic sciences & humanities, 1/3 natural sciences/ medicine/ biology).
SIGLE contains over 480,000 records. The volume of input in SIGLE is steadily increasing. During the mid-eighties the annual input was 20,000 records. During the mid-nineties the annual input was over 40,000 records. Input of 73,000 records is projected for the year 2000. During this process of steady growth the members of eagle sometimes question whether their efforts are worthwhile. They believe that the documents described in SIGLE provide a valuable information resource, but what is the reality? The International Conference Series on GL continues to generate more information on this subject. This article examines research results, which demonstrate the quality and value of GL.

Volume and Usage
Non-commercial publications play an important role in scientific communication. Examples were mentioned in Amsterdam (GL'93), Washington, D.C. (GL'95) , and in Luxembourg (GL'97).

Subject area Agriculture Sociology Energy All areas

Remarks All Publications Research Projects Energy Database Developing Countries

Volume Grey 50% 75% 27% 60%

Grey documents comprise a substantial percentage of library requests involving both recent GL, as well as, older GL. The figure (below) shows the age of requested documents in a library. It shows that journal articles are out of date more quickly than grey publications. Of the requested grey documents, 12% are more than 18 years old.

Those who deny the value of grey literature are predominantly commercial publishers. They argue that "quality grey literature" will in most cases be followed by a 'white' publication through their channels. The user simply has to wait until the commercial publisher has selected these grey documents of value.

In order to research this argument, a sample of grey bibliographic records was taken from the SIGLE database. These records were generated 10 years ago and they were extracted from 6 subject areas. For every one of the six samples a database of journal articles was searched to determine whether or not the grey document had in fact been followed by a journal article.

The table (below) shows the result of these searches. In total, 9% of the grey publications was confirmed by the samples. However, some of these grey documents were published commercially as books and monographs. Only 6% of the retrieved matched records were journal articles.

Database	Sample	Found	Found
Lisa Plus	25	4	16%
Religion Index	25	3	12%
Inspec	25	3	12%
PsychLit	25	2	8%
Sociofile	25	1	4%
Compendex	25	0	0%
Total	150	13	9%

Quality
These figures show that a significant proportion of GL is never published 'white' and that even older grey documents are still requested by the user. Another question is asked about the quality of grey literature. For some there is no quality control, no peer review. However, analysis of a sample of producers of grey literature demonstrates that many are prestigious organizations. For example, SIGLE includes documents issued by:

• Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, München.

• Technische Hochschule Aachen (DE).
  Inst. für Strahlantriebe und Turboarbeitsmaschinen.

• Siemens Solar GmbH, München (DE).

• Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Bonn (DE).
  Abt. Strassenbau.

• Daimler-Benz AG, Ulm (DE).
  Forschung und Technik.

• Ministere de l'Environnement, 75 - Paris (FR).
  Service de la Recherche et des Affaires Economiques (SRAE).

• London Univ. (GB).

Eagle does not doubt the quality control or peer review standards of organizations such as these. Most of the grey documents from these organizations are never published 'white' simply because commercial publishers do not believe they will be profitable, not because they lack quality or value.

Research Process
In order to understand the position of grey information in scientific communication, the last table was developed. It shows that grey information plays a role on different levels in the research process.

Level	Grey Literature
Front Research	Internet discussions Grey proceedings, Original theses, Reports
Research	Preprints, Theses (compilation of articles)
Review / Education	Syllabi/ Readers

Conclusion
Grey information forms a major part of scientific and technical communication. Grey documents remain unique and are rarely followed by a journal article. Much grey literature is published by prestigious organizations whose names are a guarantee for quality.

R.H.A. Wessels, Executive Director EAGLE
P.O. Box 90407, 2509 LK The Hague, Holland
Tel: 31-70-3140.281
Fax: 31-70-3140.493
E-mail: wessels@konbib.nl
URL: www.konbib.nl/SIGLE/

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Grey Literature and Publishing

Summary of a presentation for the Science and Technology Section, "Discussion Group on Publisher/Vendor Relations", at the ALA'98 Midwinter Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

Thank you for this opportunity to attend and address your discussion group on science publishing. Special thanks to Julia Gelfand from the University of California, Irvine Campus for putting me in contact with your chairperson Susan Starr.

In November 1997, the term grey literature was redefined at the Third International Conference on Grey Literature, GL'97. The revised definition has come to be known as "The Luxembourg Convention on GL", after the city in which this conference was held. The definition of grey literature now reads:

Definition of Grey Literature

That which is produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in print and electronic formats, but which is not controlled by commercial publishers.

Grey Literature differs from commercial publications in that it is not based solely or even principally on an economic model, but rather on a communication model. Otherwise stated, all aspects of commercial publishing apply to grey literature, but its existence is not determined merely by dollars and cents.

In the Grey Circuit, end-users remain the consumers of information, intermediaries continue in their intermediate roles, but the publishers come to be recognised as "corporate authors". These corporate authors, operating on all levels of government, academics, business and industry have a publishing function; however, this is not their primary mission or activity. In fact many of these corporate authors are only recently becoming aware of their publishing role.

This Awareness has in part been brought on by the Internet. And from my experience with these producers of grey literature, they like their new role as well as the status it holds.This is indeed a fortunate development, for according to the Keynote Speaker at GL'97, Prof. John Mackenzie Owen, the commercial publishing industry is at its end. With the increase of costs, their slowness to move, their many restrictions to access, and their disregard for archiving, the end-users are experiencing a decrease in value added by commercial publishers. As a consequence, all information in the future will be characterized as grey.

Publishing printed and electronic grey literature is now seen by its producers - the corporate authors - for what it has come to embody. Namely, the state-of-the-art, the cutting edge, current information, issued by the source, open to the public, and not controlled solely for commercial gain.

Dominic Farace, Head of GreyNet,
Grey Literature Network Service
Email:greynet@greynet.org

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GL'99 Reset for Washington D.C.

NEW FRONTIERS IN GREY LITERATURE GL'99 Kellogg Conference Center Washington D.C. USA October 4-5, 1999 Draft Program
Session 1 Global Assessment of Grey Literature: A brave new world of topics, formats, and uses
Session 2 Archiving Electronic Grey Literature: From bibliographic retrieval to full-text storage and distribution
Session 3 Copyright and Grey Literature: Authorship, Ownership, and Property Rights

Program and Conference Bureau:
TransAtlantic - GreyNet, Grey Literature Network Service
Koninginneweg 201, 1075 CR Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Email: greynet@greynet.org
Tel/Fax: 31-20-671.1818

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Book Review
Knowledge Diffusion in the U.S. Aerospace Industry

This book presents the results of a decade of work conducted under the auspices of the NASA/DoD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project.

The scholars involved in this project have examined multiple aspects of knowledge diffusion--specifically, its production, transfer, and use--in the large commercial aircraft (LCA) sector of the U.S. aerospace industry, which is a rich source of know-ledge, product and process technologies, and sophisticated manufacturing and production techniques. Considered a critical component of the U.S. industrial base, this industry has been the beneficiary of federally funded R&D for nearly a century. However, little is known about how the knowledge and technology resulting from these public expenditures diffuse at the individual, organizational, national, and international levels. Once largely ignored or discounted, knowledge is becoming an important component of economic, innovation, and management theories. Researchers have begun to investigate such aspects of knowledge as its flow within the firm, its absorption and assimilation through interfirm alliances, its management in process and product design, and its basis as a dynamic theory of the firm itself.

ISBD

Knowledge Diffusion in the U.S. Aerospace Industry : Managing Knowledge for Competitive Advantage/ T.E. Pinelli, R.O.Barclay, J.M. Kennedy, and A.P. Bishop. - Greenwich, CT : Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1997. With a Foreword by Everett Rogers. ISBN 1-56750-225-3 ($157.00, cloth) ISBN 1-56750-226-1 ($85.00, paper)

Ordering information:

tel: 1-203-661-0792, ext. 3004
fax: 1-203-661-0792

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GreyNet's Policy on Collection Development

On many occasions, the question arises whether GreyNet, Grey Literature Network Service, maintains a collection, and if so, what is its policy for information access and document delivery?
In its capacity as a promotional and referral base for corporate authors, researchers, and intermediaries involved worldwide in the field of grey literature, GreyNet maintains three distinct collections:

GreyNet Authored and Edited Works DESCRIPTION: These include serial and non-serial publications published by TransAtlantic of which GreyNet is a division. Among these publications are conference programs and proceedings, bibliographies, guides, notebooks, newsletters, etc. INFORMATION ACCESS: All of these publications carry an ISBN and/or ISSN number, they appear in TransAtlantic's Publishers Guide, which is available in print and on GreyNet's Website. DOCUMENT DELIVERY: These publications are priced and can be ordered directly through TransAtlantic, the publishing body.

Reference Works and Original Manuscripts DESCRIPTION: These include serial and non-serial publications on the topic of grey literature either purchased, donated, or acquired on an exchange basis by TransAtlantic - GreyNet. Such documents include journal articles, conference papers, case studies, reports, monographs, theses, news articles, audiovisual materials, etc. INFORMATION ACCESS: Each document in this collection is referenced and indexed in GreyNet's bibliographic database available on its Website. A printed version of the Annotated Bibliography on GL is available through TransAtlantic/GreyNet with updates every even year. DOCUMENT DELIVERY: When available, the bibliographic record will contain the point of access and a document number. For example, if the document is available via TransAtlantic - Greynet, one will find the annotation: Access: TransAtlantic Stock Catalog: GL.000X. A document delivery charge will be quoted upon request. If the document is available through another access center, the full address information can be found in the International Guide to Persons and Organisations in Grey Literature on GreyNet's Website.

Documentary Information Archive DESCRIPTION: This is an in-house, short-title collection of brochures, manuals, catalogs, journals, bulletins, annual reports, announcements, call for tenders, press releases, guidebooks, etc. This material is selected and compiled in maps and is filed alphabetically by acronym or name of the corporate author (i.e. issuing body) recorded in GreyNet's Referral Base. INFORMATION ACCESS: In the first instance, this archive serves the office of TransAtlantic/GreyNet in its task and mission to promote research on grey literature and in its information referral activities. GreyNet's "International Guide to Persons and Organisations in Grey Literature" found on its's Website offers full address information (including the email and URL) of these issuing bodies. DOCUMENT DELIVERY: Publications can be assessed directly through the issuing bodies i.e. the corporate authors. However, if a copy is maintained in GreyNet's archive, then the document will be delivered at set document delivery rates granted copyright is not infringed.

GreyNet's Publication Order Form

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