Document supply and open access: an international survey on grey literature

International audiencePurpose: This article investigates the impact of the open archive initiative on the document supply of grey literature. Approach: The article is based on a comparative survey of five major institutions: The British Library (UK), the CISTI (Canada), INIST-CNRS (France), the KISTI (South-Korea) and the TIB Hannover (Germany). Findings: All major document suppliers are more or less deeply involved in the open archive movement, and this involvement has an obvious impact on the policy of acquisition, archiving and supply of grey literature (dissertations, reports, conferences etc.). Originality: Even if the impact of increased access to digital resources on document supply is relatively well documented, little is known about the specific effect on grey literature, especially in the OA environment. This study provides some evidence concerning this effect.L'article explore l'impact du mouvement "open access" sur la fourniture de documents appartenant à la littérature grise. Il s'agit d'une étude comparative de cinq établissements : The British Library (R-U), le CISTI (Canada), l'INIST-CNRS (France), le KISTI (Corée du Sud) et la TIB Hannover (Allemagne). Tous les fournisseurs de documents sont plus ou moins impliqués dans le mouvement "open access", et cet engagement a un impact tangible sur la politique d'acquisition, d'archivage et de fourniture de littérature grise (thèses, rapports, conférences etc.)