No abstract

Information and communication technology (ICT) is not an unalloyed advantage when talking about propagation and expansion of scholarly knowledge. The same ICT which acts as an enabler to research in the comfort of one's study and preferred environment makes the researchers with weak conscience vulnerable to the temptation of research misconduct. Surprisingly, the same technology acts as a sentinel, helping academe nail such transgressions and withdrawing them or taking the contextual corrective recourse. Of late, there has been a substantial increase in the invalidation and withdrawal of research articles based on invalid data and findings. One analysed the retraction notices of 249 annulled articles, indexed in Scopus, during the period, 2000-2017. The study has highlighted that the majority of the retracted notices do not have explicit reasons for revoking the findings of research articles. It has stressed upon the immensely pivotal role of libraries in spreading awareness and sensitising researchers with regard to adherence to norms, ethics and policies of scholarly communication.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to spotlight the research output in the field of grey literature (GL) during the 13-year period between 2007 and 2019 as reflected in the Scopus database. Design/methodology/approach This study has used Scopus, an abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, to collect data for the specified 13-year period. The sources, which had “grey literature” in their titles, were considered for the study and the period was from 2007 to 2019. The downloaded results were analysed using specific parameters. The SPSS and Excel have been used for analysing the retrieved data. The VOSviewer has been used for visualizing the network. Findings Scopus indexes different kinds of documents such as articles, books, chapters, conference papers, editorial, erratum, letters, notes, reviews and short surveys. There were 345 publications, which received 309 citations. GL-Conference Series: Conference Proceedings published the most number of articles. The majority 51.9 per cent of the articles were published in collaboration with authors from European countries. The term “grey literature” occurred most commonly as author keyword and index term. Originality/value The present study highlights how the area of GL has evolved during the 13-year period. The findings of the study pave the way for more detailed exploration of GL, which has relevance for the researchers.