Farrah 2019

Appraisal of: Farrah K, Mierzwinski-Urban M. Almost half of references on new and emerging nondrug health technologies are grey literature. J Med Lib Ass 2019;107(1):43-48


Reviewer(s): 

Carolyn Spry

Melissa Walter

Full Reference: 

Farrah K, Mierzwinski-Urban M. Almost half of references on new and emerging nondrug health technologies are grey literature. J Med Lib Ass 2019;107(1):43-48

Short description: 

The study investigated the use of grey literature in reports on new and emerging nondrug health technologies and the details of the search methodology. The bibliographies of 22 horizon scanning reports published by eight agencies were examined for: the number of grey literature references, the types of grey literature represented, and the sources of grey literature.

Just under half of all the references were grey literature of 14 different types. The most frequently cited type of grey literature was documents produced by manufacturers of the technology under review. The most common sources of grey literature were ClinicalTrials.gov and the FDA. Of the 22 reports, 15 provided a full or partial description of the grey literature search methodology.

Limitations stated by the author(s): 

The sample included only 22 English language reports identified from a single source (CADTH Horizon Scan Roundup 2014).

This study only examined whether references included in the report were grey literature and did not examine how the content of the grey literature cited was utilized in the reports.

The authors could not determine whether grey literature sources were consulted by report authors and found helpful but were not specifically cited.

Limitations stated by the reviewer(s): 


Study Type: 

Single study

Related Chapters: 


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