Skip to Main Content
Research Guides@Tufts

Dentistry

A brief introduction to resources

Databases

You may search for research on dental materials in any of the databases recommended in “Find Articles” on the left. However, you may also want to check these more engineering focused databases to acquire their perspective on dental materials.

 

Gray Literature

What is it?
The Twelfth International Conference on Grey Literature in Prague in 2010 arrived at the following definition:

"Grey literature stands for manifold document types produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in print and electronic formats that are protected by intellectual property rights, of sufficient quality to be collected and preserved by libraries and institutional repositories, but not controlled by commercial publishers; i.e. where publishing is not the primary activity of the producing body."

Examples
Technical reports, government documents, conference proceedings, and more.

Where to find it?
Some databases also include certain types of gray literature. To check, look at their “document type” filters and see if they include filters for anything beyond articles and books.

For many types of gray literature, though, a google search is often the best place to start. Consider entering information such as “[material type] material sheet” to find material information sheets. Be sure when searching and choosing information to consider CRAAP criteria -- Currency Relevance Authority Accuracy and Purpose.

There are ways to make a google search stronger. If your initial searches aren’t lending good results, please don’t hesitate to ask us or drop by for some one-on-one help.

Note: Patents require a special approach. Check out Patents and Trademarks for more information.

Upcoming Workshops

Need Help?

Ask Us

Desk Hours: M-F 7:45am-5pm