Subject Guides

Grey Literature

Critical Appraisal of Grey Literature

It is important to critically appraise all sources used to inform clinical practice, consistent with the principles of evidence-based practice. As grey literature is not peer-reviewed, it is especially important to critically appraise grey literature before using it to inform clinical practice.

AACODS Checklist

The AACODS Checklist is a simple framework you can use to evaluate the quality and trustworthiness of grey literature. As grey literature varies in its content, scope, and organization, this checklist is broad and widely applicable to different information sources.

Authority - Who is responsible for the content and are they credible?

Accuracy - Is the document supported by credible, authoritative sources?

Coverage - Does the document clearly state parameters that define their content coverage?

Objectivity - Is there bias? Is it easily detected?

Date - Can you find the date? For the content to inform your research it must have a date to confirm relevance

Significance - Does the document add something unique to the research?

Tyndall J. AACODS checklist for appraising grey literature. Adelaide: Flinders University; 2010. (https://www.library.sydney.edu.au/research/systematic-review/downloads/AACODS_Checklist.pdf)

Lateral Reading

Lateral reading is an information evaluation technique most often used to evaluate claims on websites and in other, less formal sources. Lateral reading is the simple practice of:

  • Using separate authoritative sources to confirm the claims in the source being evaluated
  • Researching the background, goals, and purpose of the organization that produced a document

Using lateral reading, the goal is to evaluate a website or publication's authority, using the Process, Expertise, Aim framework.

Process - a reliable source for facts should have a process in place for encouraging accuracy, verifying facts, and correcting mistakes

Expertise - do the author(s) of a text have domain or disciplinary expertise?

Aim - what is the publication, author, website, etc attempting to accomplish?