PODCAST · science
The Grey Lit Café
by Anthony Haynes
Grey (or gray) literature – 'grey lit' for short – includes such forms of communication as reports, white papers, dissertations, newsletters, slide decks, blogs, and podcasts. The Grey Lit Café explores the opportunities and benefits that grey lit provides for professionals and researchers. The podcast is directed by Anthony Haynes, produced by Dr Bart Hallmark, and published by Frontinus Ltd, a communications agency focused on engineering, infrastructure, sustainability, and research. Frontinus provides consultancy, editing, writing, and training services. If you're creating some grey literature and would like some support, contact us via our website, frontinus.org.uk.
Episodes
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Spineless Wonders: the power of print unbound
Spineless Wonders is the splendid title for a splendid exhibition at the University of London's Senate House Library - an exhibition of unbound material in myriad formats, spanning five hundred years of printing. This episode reviews the exhibition with its three curators: Tansy Barton (Academic...
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Effective design features on posters (GM1 comms)
If you're studying on the University of Cambridge's Multidisciplinary Design course, this episode is for you. The episode focuses on the visual aspects of advice. It seeks to provide pragmatic recommendations that will make a marked difference to the communicative effectiveness of your poster...
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Physical aspects of poster presentations (GM1 comms)
If you're studying on the University of Cambridge's Multidisciplinary Design course, this episode is for you. The episode focuses on the (quite radical) implications of the context of poster display spectators' behaviour aspects of inclusive practice. These considerations will help you to…
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Tactics: group presentations and Q&A (Comms for GM1)
If you're a student on the University of Cambridge's Multidisciplinary Design course (GM1), this episode is for you. Indeed, it focuses on considerations specific to the course, based on observations from previous cohorts' presentations. This is the third of three episodes on presentations. There...
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Effective communication using slides (Comms for GM1)
If you're a student on the University of Cambridge's Multidisciplinary Design course (GM1), this episode is for you. The episode stems from consideration of the pitfalls presenters fall into concerning use of slides. Simply by avoiding these pitfalls, you can make your presentation outstandingly...
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What makes a good presentation (Comms for GM1)
If you're a student on the University of Cambridge's Multidisciplinary Design course (GM1), this episode has been created for you. The episode stems from consideration of the big pitfalls presenters often fall into and provides advice on how to avoid them. Simply by avoiding the pitfalls, you can...
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How to add value to your poster (Comms for GM1)
If you’re a student on the Multidisciplinary Design course (GM1), this episode has been created for you. Understandably, students tasked with preparing a poster presentation tend to assume that it’s all about the poster itself. Of course, the poster’s the primary component of a poster…
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Podcasting on grey literature: what have we done? whither will we go?
"Three years have passed; five summers, with the length/ Of five long winters!" (as William Wordsworth wrote). This episode was recorded to mark the third anniversary of The Grey Lit Café's first episode ('Welcome to the Grey Lit Café') and the conclusion of our seventh season. We briefly review...
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Dissertations as an interface between industry and academia, with Joseph Gibbons
A key role of grey literature is to provide an interface between industry and academic research. In this episode, we continue our focus on innovation in grey literature by interviewing Dr Joseph Gibbons, Principal Technical Advisor at Natural Power Ireland. Joseph outlines a scheme he established...
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Podcasting as a pedagogical tool, with James Austin
Anthony Haynes writes: A persistent theme on The Grey Lit Café is the role of grey literature genres in higher education. We've published episodes on abstracts, dissertations, essays, online lectures, posters, and slide decks. In this episode, we take up a challenge from our recent episodes on...
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Slide decks: their developmental use, with James Austin
Anthony Haynes writes: A persistent theme on The Grey Lit Café is the role of grey literature genres in higher education. We've published episodes on abstracts, dissertations, essays, online lectures, and posters. In this episode we take up a challenge from our recent episodes on essays: what...
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The comms joke
If you work in comms, you're used to clients (internal or external) announcing, "We need a poster!" You have to laugh. Further listening We hope you found this episode rewarding. If so, you might find the following of particular interest: The games we play in science and research communication...
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Essays revisited: How effective are essays as a genre of student writing?
Anthony Haynes writes: In our previous episode, How effective are essays as an academic genre?, we examined essays specifically as a tool for assessment in academic contexts. In this episode we return to the genre of essays but consider their use on courses outside examinations. Engy Moussa and I...
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How effective are essays as an academic genre? The case of examinations
Anthony Haynes writes: On The Grey Lit Café we frequently focus on specific genres.* In this episode, we focus on the genre of essays. In particular, we discuss the use of essays in examinations. Engy Moussa (University of Cambridge) and I debate: the strengths and weaknesses of essays as an...
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Grey literature aggregation: Toby Green on Policy Commons
Policy Commons is on a mission to make grey literature - especially in the form of reports, more discoverable and accessible. Its content platform, Coherent Digital, hosts over 12 million documents - and the number is growing rapidly. Who better to discuss this massive initiative than Toby Green,...
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Quality infrastructure and productivity: on protocols
Anthony Haynes is the author and publisher of an extensive series of Writing Protocols. In this episode, Engy Moussa interviews Anthony on how to produce protocols in order to get things done - and get them done well. In the process, they discuss such questions as: What is a protocol? How to...
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The art of the newsletter: lessons from the reader's perspective
Anthony Haynes writes: In this, our latest genre-based, episode, Engy Moussa and I explore newsletters - primarily from the perspective of the reader. We range widely, exploring questions concerning quantity, spatial design, schedules, the reading journey, distinction, and offputting features.…
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Key insights on research communications, with Rob Johnson
Anthony Haynes writes: It was a treat for this episode to be able to interview Rob Johnson, founder and Managing Director of Research Consulting Ltd. RC is a long-established organisation dedicated to improving the effectiveness and impact of research and scholarly communication. Rob and his...
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Before Spotify: the remarkable story of chautauquas
One question we explore on this podcast is that of antecedents: what came before podcasts? This episode tells the wonderfully rich history of chautauquas - an enterprising means of bringing entertainment and informal education to small-town America. Chautauquas can be thought of as a kind of...
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How to define grey literature? The implication of letters
Anthony Haynes writes: This episode is the third of our series on the relationship between letters and grey literature. In the first, we made the case, using the case of the correspondence of communications theorist I.A. Richards, for considering letters as a form of grey literature. In the…
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Where do podcasts come from? Letters as an antecedent
Anthony Haynes writes: Cultural forms and communicative genres tend not to emerge from a vacuum: they tend to emerge from existing forms. In the case of podcasts, obvious candidates include lectures, essays, sermons, and radio interviews. And, we suggest here, letters. In this, the second of a...
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But what about letters? Their scholarly use as grey literature
Grey literature covers a multitude of genres - for example, reports, white papers, preprints, and newsletters. But what about letters? Letters are not usually listed amongst grey literature forms, but this episode puts the case for why letters should sometimes be considered as grey literature....
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Overwriting: how and why to avoid it
Overwriting - producing a draft that exceeds your word (or page) limit - is an extremely common problem amongst writers in science, research, and professional areas. In this episode, Engy Moussa interviews Anthony Haynes. They examine why this problem arises, what harm it does, and, crucially…
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The case of case studies, with Dr Farrah Arif
Anthony Haynes writes: On The Grey Lit Café we frequently explore grey literature by genre. Here we extend our coverage to the genre of case studies. To guide us, we interview Dr Farrah Arif, Senior Lecturer at the University of Hull. Farrah takes us on an expert, and enthusiastic, tour of the...
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Why we need to talk about silver literature
Anthony Haynes writes: I've long fought for a greater appreciation of forms of serious communication, other than just books and journal papers - forms such as reports, white papers, presentations, and blogs. But it's difficult because the collective term for such forms is 'grey [or 'grey']...
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How to give a presentation on engineering
Many engineers need to give presentations. They do so in a variety of contexts - for example, as part of a pitch, project report, conference, or job application. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a top-quality resource on how to do presentations, specifically about engineering? Well, there is!…
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Grey literature workflows: the surprising role of pen & paper
Word processing has been around a long time now - so long, that we barely use the phrase anymore. So dominant in our workflows has it become that we act as though there's no need to distinguish it - as if there is simply no alternative. So pen and paper have become redundant forms of technology...
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'Quality blogs', with Giovanni Salucci: innovation in scientific and research communication
You can wait a long time for ambitious innovations in the communication of science and research - and then two come along together. In our previous episode, Scholarly Podcasts, Mack Hagood articulated his thinking behind a novel approach to podcasting. Now we're delighted to publish our interview...
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Review: Putting stories to work, by Shawn Callahan
Anthony Haynes writes: Many scientists and researchers have come to realise that communicating their work effectively requires them to tell a story. But how? One resource is brilliant at answering that question: Putting stories to work, by Shawn Callahan. This review introduces some of Callahan's...
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Scholarly podcasts, with Mack Hagood
Anthony Haynes writes: Nobody could accuse The Grey Lit Café of ignoring innovation in the communication of science and research! In fact, we're delighted to showcase innovative thinking, as in such episodes as Innovation in research dissemination: Cora Cole on GreyLit Online lecturing: Bart...
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White papers: what are they? what are they for? how do they add value?
Though opinions differ on the scope of grey literature, there's consensus that white papers represent a core genre of white papers. This episode examines the place of white papers in the grey literature landscape. In particular, it explores what constitutes the essence of white papers,...
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The games we play in science and research communication
Much of the content on The Grey Lit Café is pragmatic, concerned with how to improve the creation or management of grey literature ('greylit'). And some of it is conceptual. concerned with how to inform our thinking about greylit. This episode seeks to make a contribution by combining the two…
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The Art of Pitching, with Yuxia Zou
Having to pitch yourself and your work in order to win an opportunity is a standard component of professional and scientific life - and one that many people find challenging. In this episode, Dr Yuxia Zou (Nanyang Business School) reflects on her experience of pitching and identifies actionable...
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Another season over and what have we done?
Anthony Haynes writes: Our episode on the relationship between dissertations (or theses) and books marked the final episode of our fourth season. Here, in this additional episode, I reflect on the season. What types of content have we published, in what genres of podcast? And what have been the…
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Dissertations and books: how are they related?
Anthony Haynes writes: You've written a dissertation or thesis. You'd like to write a book. How are the two forms related? How to transition from one to the other? In this episode, we seek to provide detailed, professional, insights into making a success of the process. Resources William Germano,...
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Understanding preprints with Jonny Coates
Anthony Haynes writes: What are preprints? Where do they fit into the ecology of science publishing? And how did the pandemic change their role? What do people believe about preprints? How accurate are those beliefs? In this interview, Dr Jonny Coates (Associate Director, ASAPbio) demythologizes...
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How to write a research proposal and succeed
Anthony Haynes writes: The title is this episode forms the sub-title of a book by Gerard M. Crawley & Eoin O'Sullivan called The Grant Writer's Handbook. The episode on the latest in our series of reviews of grey literature resources. In it, I seek to characterize the book as a whole and identify...
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Sustaining excellence in content production: interview with Lee Chapman of TREW Marketing
Anthony Haynes writes: On this podcast, we like to explore best practice in content development and content marketing. What does best practice look like? What mindset and processes are required to support its development - and, especially, to enable consistently high quality? in this episode, we...
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Don't fall in love with your work: Sabuhi Essa on creative processes
Anthony Haynes writes: Sabuhi Essa, from (as she proudly declares) "the feet of the greatest mountains in the world" in northern Pakistan, trained in an art school in Pakistan, practiced architecture, and is now researching the topic of resilience whilst based in the University of Cambridge's...
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If you love attending meetings at work, you don't need this episode
Anthony Haynes writes: We've recorded two episodes on the topic of meetings. Why, on a podcast devoted to grey literature? Well, our guest, meetings guru Dr Carrie Goucher, argues that understanding (and improving) meetings benefits a 'systems' approach, in which we consider how they interact…
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What makes a good podcast? What makes good comms?
Anthony Haynes writes: I like listening to good podcasts about communications because I can learn in two ways simultaneously - from what the podcast says about communication and also from what they show through the good practice they embody. Frankly, I haven't found as many good podcasts on the...
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Managing emails: a guide for individual users
Anthony Haynes writes: "Email? - no sweat!"; "Email is no kind of bane to me!" - one doesn't offer here such sentiments. Anyone who remembers the world of work before the advent of email will remember of feeling of wonder when email became available. When I started working in publishing, authors...
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Wasted words: our antidote to verbosity
Anthony Haynes writes: 'Added bonus'; 'free gift'; 'forward planning'; 'pre-prepared': pleonasms - usages that involve redundant words - are all around us. In this episode, Engy Moussa and I have fun with the English language. We ask: what are the most common pleonasms? what types of pleonasm are...
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Practical insights on blogging from an industry expert: the Stephanie Shirley interview
Anthony Haynes writes: In our third season we had the pleasure of publishing an episode in which we interviewed Stephanie Shirley, Founder & Owner of Bennis Public Relations. on aspects of comms, business, and creativity. Here we're delighted to welcome Stephanie back for an interview focused on...
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Developing proposals: insights from behind the scenes
Anthony Haynes writes: This episode is the first in an occasional series entitled "Behind the scenes", in which we seek to provide guidance to the creators of grey literature based on our professional experience of working on grey literature genres. Here we focus on grant proposals. First, we...
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Grey literature debates: the contribution of this podcast
We published our first episode on 8 March 2022. This episode, our 29th, marks our anniversary. In it, we discuss the contribution of the podcast, placing it in the context of other grey literature publications. In particular, we attend to the question of perspectives - those of…
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The business of professional writing: review of Accidental Author
Anthony Haynes writes: In the literary world there's no shortage of memoir or autobiography. If you want to read about the writing life from the point of view of a writer of fiction, say, or poetry, there's a multitude of options. But what about the writing life of an author of grey literature? I...
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Decolonising the library and grey literature: Interview with John Barbrook
Anthony Haynes writes: Across the fields of librarianship, information science, and grey literature, questions concerning values have come strongly to the fore. In particular, the notion of decolonisation of intellectual capital has gained currency. In this interview with John Barbrook, Faculty...
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Stephanie Shirley shares expertise on comms, business, and creativity
Anthony Haynes writes: This podcast covers the production, management, and consumption of grey literature. Of these themes, we've placed most emphasis than most resources on the first. In the context of professional communication, we're interested in the creators - people and organizations - and...
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How to manage your project? Programme method selection
Anthony Haynes writes: In this episode, I was delighted to interview an expert on project management, namely Ville Helenius, Managing Director of Simbalite. In the interview, Ville draws on his vast and varied professional experience to articulate the relationship between contrasting approaches…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Grey (or gray) literature – 'grey lit' for short – includes such forms of communication as reports, white papers, dissertations, newsletters, slide decks, blogs, and podcasts. The Grey Lit Café explores the opportunities and benefits that grey lit provides for professionals and researchers. The podcast is directed by Anthony Haynes, produced by Dr Bart Hallmark, and published by Frontinus Ltd, a communications agency focused on engineering, infrastructure, sustainability, and research. Frontinus provides consultancy, editing, writing, and training services. If you're creating some grey literature and would like some support, contact us via our website, frontinus.org.uk.
HOSTED BY
Anthony Haynes
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Grey Lit Café have?
The Grey Lit Café currently has 74 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Grey Lit Café about?
Grey (or gray) literature – 'grey lit' for short – includes such forms of communication as reports, white papers, dissertations, newsletters, slide decks, blogs, and podcasts. The Grey Lit Café explores the opportunities and benefits that grey lit provides for professionals and researchers. The...
How often does The Grey Lit Café release new episodes?
The Grey Lit Café has 74 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Grey Lit Café?
You can listen to The Grey Lit Café on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Grey Lit Café?
The Grey Lit Café is created and hosted by Anthony Haynes.
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