Grey literature is a broad term for professional works that have not been published by a recognized commercial publisher. For that reason, they may be difficult to find online.
A specific type of grey literature are white papers which typically address a policy issue or concern. They are written in a professional tone to an outside audience about a specific policy issue.
In addition to the Front Matter, the body of the work is typically under ten pages and a provides a logical, factual argument. A common structure used in many white papers starts with an introduction to the topic, then states the problem. This is followed by a policy solution, and then a conclusion. Supporting evidence like datasets, graphs, and charts are provided at the back in an appendix, along with a complete bibliography of sources.
Many writers of white papers use the term “white paper”, so using that phrase when searching is helpful. (This advice is applicable to most of grey literature; so depending on what you are looking for, you might try other forms of grey literature in your searching. For example: “position paper” or “progress report”.
Who produces these white papers? Typically, you’ll find these papers are produced by governments, universities and research organizations, professional organizations, and nonprofits and are on their websites.
A good way to find them in to search in Google, and use a phrase for the type of grey literature you want, followed by your topic, and followed by Google’s site: operator. It would look like this:
"white paper" fracking site:gov
Try these following searches and compare how different the results are:
"white paper" fracking site:gov
"white paper" fracking site:edu
"white paper" fracking site:org
"white paper" fracking site:com