Shades of Grey: Guidelines for Working with the Grey Literature in Systematic Reviews for Management and Organizational Studies

This paper suggests how the ‘grey literature’, the diverse and heterogeneous body of material that is made public outside, and not subject to, traditional academic peer‐review processes, can be used to increase the relevance and impact of management and organization studies (MOS). The authors clarif...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of management reviews : IJMR Vol. 19; no. 4; pp. 432 - 454
Main Authors Adams, Richard J., Smart, Palie, Huff, Anne Sigismund
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.10.2017
Subjects
Grey literature
Management
Organization studies
Organization theory
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Summary:This paper suggests how the ‘grey literature’, the diverse and heterogeneous body of material that is made public outside, and not subject to, traditional academic peer‐review processes, can be used to increase the relevance and impact of management and organization studies (MOS). The authors clarify the possibilities by reviewing 140 systematic reviews published in academic and practitioner outlets to answer the following three questions: (i) Why is grey literature excluded from/included in systematic reviews in MOS? (ii) What types of grey material have been included in systematic reviews since guidelines for practice were first established in this discipline? (iii) How is the grey literature treated currently to advance management and organization scholarship and knowledge? This investigation updates previous guidelines for more inclusive systematic reviews that respond to criticisms of current review practices and the needs of evidence‐based management.
Bibliography:This work was conducted with support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Centre of Excellence for Industrial Sustainability grant number EP/I033351/1 (a research collaboration of Cambridge, Cranfield, Imperial and Loughborough Universities). No new data were created in the course of this work. The authors are grateful to Greg Boulton, Technology Enhanced Learning Designer at Cranfield University, for his help in creating Figure 1. The authors also acknowledge the pioneering work of Emeritus Professor David Tranfield who laid the foundations for systematic review in Management and Organizational Studies which continues to inspire.
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ISSN:1460-8545
1468-2370
DOI:10.1111/ijmr.12102