Grey literature in French digital repositories: a survey
Résumé
The impact of open archives on the availability and selection of scientific and technical information is growing. Yet, there is little empirical evidence on the deposit and processing of grey literature in digital repositories. The purpose of this communication is to provide a survey on grey literature in French open archives, e.g. institutional and subject-based digital repositories. The survey is based on a selection of 56 representative French digital repositories. The different archives are selected through national and international registries of OAI repositories, following a defined set of criteria. The repositories are shortly described (type of repository, scientific domain, software, size, language, institution). Five aspects are analysed for each digital repository: 1. Typology of grey documents (in particular, theses and dissertations, reports, conference proceedings, working papers, courseware). 2. Part of grey literature in the whole archive (in %). 3. Specific metadata related to grey literature. 4. Quality control and policies (evaluation, validation). 5. Conditions of access to the full text. These information and data are linked to the characteristics of the repositories mentioned above, and specific features of grey literature are discussed. Furthermore, the question if the New York definition of grey literature applies to the content of digital repositories is discussed. The communication provides an overview of the preservation and dissemination of grey literature in French digital repositories, contributes to the discovery of French grey literature and open archives, and moves forward the debate on the future of grey literature in the environment of digital repositories.
Issues du mouvement vers l'accès libre à l'information scientifique, les archives ouvertes constituent une formidable ressource documentaire pour la recherche scientifique. Malgré l'impact croissant de ces archives, il n'y a que peu de données sur le dépôt de la littérature grise. L'article présente les résultats d'une étude empirique sur le contenu de 56 archives ouvertes en France en 2008. Parmi les différents aspects abordés : typologie des sites et organismes, domaines scientifiques, nombre des dépôts, types de documents, qualité des contenus, avec une attention particulière pour les contenus non commerciaux (thèses, rapports, conférences...).
