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The high scholarly value of grey literature before and during Covid-19

Author

Listed:
  • Kayvan Kousha

    (University of Wolverhampton)

  • Mike Thelwall

    (University of Wolverhampton)

  • Matthew Bickley

    (University of Wolverhampton)

Abstract

New academic knowledge in journal articles is partly built on peer reviewed research already published in journals or books. Academics can also draw from non-academic sources, such as the websites of organisations that publish credible information. This article investigates trends in the academic citing of this type of grey literature for 17 health, media, statistics, and large international organisations, with a focus on Covid-19. The results show substantial and steadily increasing numbers of citations to all 17 sites, with larger increases from 2019 to 2020. In 2020, Covid-19 citations to these websites were particularly common for news organisations, the WHO, and the UK Office for National Statistics, apparently for up-to-date information in the rapidly changing circumstances of the pandemic. Except for the UN, the most cited URLs of each organisation were not traditional report-like grey literature but were other types, such as news stories, data, statistics, and general guidance. The Covid-19 citations to most of these websites originated primarily from medical research, commonly for coronavirus data and statistics. Other fields extensively cited some of the non-health websites, as illustrated by social science (including psychology) studies often citing UNESCO. The results confirm that grey literature from major websites has become even more important within academia during the pandemic, providing up-to-date information from credible sources despite a lack of academic peer review. Researchers, reviewers, and editors should accept that it is reasonable to cite this information, when relevant, and evaluators should value academic work that supports these non-academic outputs.

Suggested Citation

  • Kayvan Kousha & Mike Thelwall & Matthew Bickley, 2022. "The high scholarly value of grey literature before and during Covid-19," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(6), pages 3489-3504, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:127:y:2022:i:6:d:10.1007_s11192-022-04398-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-022-04398-3
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kayvan Kousha & Mike Thelwall & Mahshid Abdoli, 2012. "The role of online videos in research communication: A content analysis of YouTube videos cited in academic publications," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(9), pages 1710-1727, September.
    2. Kayvan Kousha & Mike Thelwall & Mahshid Abdoli, 2012. "The role of online videos in research communication: A content analysis of YouTube videos cited in academic publications," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(9), pages 1710-1727, September.
    3. Matthew S. Bickley & Kayvan Kousha & Michael Thelwall, 2020. "Can the impact of grey literature be assessed? An investigation of UK government publications cited by articles and books," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(2), pages 1425-1444, November.
    4. Wolfgang Glänzel & Ping Zhou, 2011. "Publication activity, citation impact and bi-directional links between publications and patents in biotechnology," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 86(2), pages 505-525, February.
    5. Thelwall, Mike, 2019. "Should citations be counted separately from each originating section?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 658-678.
    6. Nicola Di Girolamo & Reint Meursinge Reynders, 2020. "Characteristics of scientific articles on COVID-19 published during the initial 3 months of the pandemic," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(1), pages 795-812, October.
    7. Henry Small, 2004. "On the shoulders of Robert Merton: Towards a normative theory of citation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 60(1), pages 71-79, May.
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    Cited by:

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    3. Haunschild, Robin & Bornmann, Lutz, 2023. "Which papers cited which tweets? An exploratory analysis based on Scopus data," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2).

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