Article by Invitation: The importance of grey literature in fisheries ecology: an example based on the trophic role of small pelagics in the Gulf of California.

Abstract

Grey literature has been, in general, rejected from peer reviewed journals due to the lack ofspecialized revision and because they are difficult to trace. However, this information may contain detailed data that cannot be found in commercial reviewed journals. In order to assess the importance of grey literature in fisheries ecology, we made an online survey of indexed journals as well as thesis dissertations, technical papers and abstracts from proceedings reporting the trophic relationships of small pelagic fish in the Gulf of California. We obtained 57 bibliographic references from which 36 are considered grey literature,and these would represent a loss of more than 60% of information. This bias can lead to erroneousconclusions in studies and applications derived from such information.