Non-academic sources (sometimes called "gray literature") are published by organizations and agencies outside of traditional commercial or academic publishers. Many of these sources are published via organization or agency web sites and are available to anyone with an internet connection.
Some common types of non-academic sources are:
Characteristics of non-academic sources
Credit: Why use grey literature? University of Illinois Libraries
Select keywords that describe your research topic and combine them with words that describe the population
"restorative justice" AND race
"drug courts" AND (women OR gender OR female)
If your results do not already include reports, data, statistics, papers or briefs, add these keywords to your existing search.
"restorative justice" AND race AND (data OR statistics OR report OR paper OR brief)
"drug courts" AND (women OR gender OR female) AND (data OR statistics)
Reports, papers, data, statistics, policy briefs, etc. are all likely to be published by the organizations or agencies that produce them on their own websites. The most efficient way to find such sources is to use some advanced search strategies in Google.
A vast archive of social science data for research and instruction, containing thousands of digital files of social science research data in political science, sociology, economics, criminal justice, and more.
Full text reports, analysis, news and data from the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan research organization that conducts public opinion polls and social science research.
This resource provides an overall view of many controversial legal topics in the United States: abortion, the right to die, gun control, prayer in public schools, marijuana, marriage, personal income tax, drunk driving, capital punishment, right to work, lemon law, leases and other agreements, child custody, legal ages, and many other areas.
Statista is an online statistics portal providing access to data from market and opinion research institutions, as well as from business organizations and government institutions.
| Factor | Definition | Signals |
|---|---|---|
| Networks | Connections, alliances, and affiliations that an organization's staff and board have | Expertise and trustworthiness |
| Past impact | Any effect the reesarch center has had on policy, practice, media, or academia | Expertise |
| Intellectual independence and autonomy | Independence on deciding their research agenda, methods, and actions | Trustworthiness |
| Transparency | Public disclosure of funding sources, agenda, affiliations, partnerships, and conflicts of interest | Trustworthiness |
| Credentials and authority | Collected expertise and qualifications that an organization and its staff have | Expertise |
| Communications and visibility | How and how often the organization communicates with its stakeholders | Trustworthiness |
| Research quality | Following research guidelines to produce policy relevant research in which the quality is assured | Expertise and trustworthiness |
| Ideology and values | Set of ideas or values that guide an organization | Trustworthiness |
| Current context | Current setting in which an organization and its stakeholders are immersed | Frames the assessment and gives prominence to certain factors |
Credit: Deconstructing credibility: Factors that affect a think tank's credibility by Andrea Baertl Helguero
It is important to consider the organization or agency publishing the information on their site, in addition to any individual author(s) if any are named.
Non-academic sources have not gone through any kind of peer or editorial review in most cases, so the "heavy lifting" of evaluation is up to the reader. See the other tabs in the box for guidance about how to evaluate these kinds of sources.