article · Environmental Science & Policy
Gray literature provides an important complement to peer-reviewed sources in applied research and science-policy assessments, capturing practical evidence and diverse worldviews free from the time lags and publication biases of traditional academic journals. Because gray literature is varied and difficult to retrieve using conventional methods, a novel review strategy was developed using Google's Programmable Search Engine within the IPBES Values Assessment. This custom search tool enabled a targeted, systematic review without needing standardised approaches. The evaluation showed that gray literature differed from academic sources across every evaluated aspect, frequently offering transformative future visions not found in peer-reviewed works. These outcomes demonstrate that incorporating non-academic publications can strengthen the evidence base for applied practice and policy formulation.
Traditional academic publishing can delay access to vital evidence and omit broader societal viewpoints. By demonstrating a workable approach to systematically review gray literature, this work shows how policymakers and researchers can access unfiltered, practical evidence and forward-looking ideas to produce more credible, legitimate, and timely guidance for global challenges.
The method enables policy assessment bodies, applied researchers, and decision-support organisations to deploy custom search engines for systematic gray literature collection. The process has been applied and tested within a major international assessment framework, though specific commercial tools or productised market solutions are not detailed in the abstract.
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Gray literature is increasingly considered to complement evidence and knowledge from peer-reviewed literature for science-policy processes and applied research. On the one hand, science-policy assessments need to consider a diversity of worldviews, knowledge types and values from a variety of sectors and actor groups, and synthesize policy-relevant findings that are salient, legitimate and credible. On the other hand, practitioners and scholars conducting applied research are affected by the time lag and biases of academic publication processes. Gray literature holds diverse perspectives informative for science-policy processes as well as practical evidence unfiltered by commercial publication processes. However, its heterogeneity has made it challenging to access through conventional means for a literature review. This paper details one endeavor within the Values Assessment of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) to review gray literature using Google’s Programmable Search Engine. In the absence of a standardized approach, we build on the limited experiential knowledge base for reviewing gray literature and report on the potential applicability of our strategy for future reviews. Gray literature review results contrast findings of our parallel review of academic literature, underlining the importance of mobilizing different knowledge bases in science-policy assessments, evidence-based practices, and applied research. • We examine the integration of gray literature in the IPBES Values Assessment. • Open-access, customizable search engines enable targeted, systematic reviews of gray literature. • Gray literature differed from peer-reviewed literature in every aspect assessed. • Gray literature more often contained future visions with transformative potential. • Findings support uptake of gray literature in science-policy assessments and practice.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103882
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