Biology

Theses may be available in online format within a database or institutional repository or the print format may be listed in a university library catalogue. Below, is a list of different databases that index theses and dissertations.

If the full-text thesis or dissertation is not available in the Library's collection, request an interlibrary loan.

Locating the full-text of conference proceedings can be difficult since they are not always available online, and some are distributed in print format or even on a CD-ROM. Or they may only be available to conference participants. Below, is a list of different databases that index conference proceedings.

Locating conference proceedings in Omni

uOttawa Libraries have some conference proceedings in our collection. These volumes can be located in Omni:

• If you know the specific volume, you can search by title, association, or series;
• If you would like to see what the library has on a particular topic, you can search by keywords. Then, on the results page, use the search filters on the left to limit your results by resource type to "conference proceedings"

What if the conference proceeding is not available in print or electronic format?

Submit a request for an interlibrary loan. You can request an individual article or the entire volume (if available). 

Grey literature was defined by the Grey Literature International Steering Committee (GLISC) as:

“Information produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in electronic and print formats not controlled by commercial publishing i.e. where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body.”

The Grey Literature Network Service was founded in 1992 and their goal was to facilitate dialog, research, and communication between those in the field of grey literature.   You may find some current or helpful links on their GreyNet International website.

SEARCH HINTS

• Use a website, repository or database (examples below)...that mentions finding grey literature or these types of materials:
  • Research papers (see this Library guide for suggested Open Access Repositories)
  • Technical reports (see this Library guide for Technical reports)
  • Preprints (see website suggestions below or this directory with disciplines indicated Research Preprints: Server List)
  • Conference proceedings (see this Library guide for Conference Proceedings)
  • Dissertations and theses (see this Library guide for Theses and Dissertations)
  • Statistics and data (Library help to access specialized data and statistics)
  • Think tank materials or Policy documents (see Harvard Library Think search guide)
  • Government documents (see Library guide for Government Information) plus...
    • UBC's 'Find government info via Google'
    • SFU's Google Custom Searches for Non-governmental and Intergovernmental organizations
    • Carleton's Google Custom Search for Canadian Government Documents
      (over 775 core domains at the Federal, Provincial and Municipal levels of government)
       
• Search for the company, institution or organization likely to have produced the type of information you want to find.
   
• Use keywords such as: report, proceedings, "think tank", "white paper", policy, statistics, etc

WHERE TO SEARCH

Open access repositories (academic, governmental, institutional) exist in many countries:

• CARL guide for repositories in Canada (including our own uO Research) This link opens in a new window
• Jisc guide - by country (quality-assured Open Access Repositories)
• uOttawa Find open access content Library web page

Databases

Some of our subscription databases can include a few types of grey literature (mostly theses, conference papers, preprints or data papers):

• Web of Science - you may see results with a  'Document Type' equal to 'Data paper' or 'Proceedings Paper'
• SCOPUS - you may see results with a  'Document Type' equal to 'Data paper' or 'Conference Paper'
• Proquest databases - you may see results with
  • 'Source type=Report + Document type=Market Research, Industry Report, Company Profile'
  • 'Source type=Working paper + Document type=Working paper (these are often pre-preprints from a repository and once it is peer-reviewed, two records may appear in the Proquest results)
     

Websites...