Grey Literature and Statistics for Dentistry

Conference proceedings are papers, reports, or other documents that record the information presented at meetings of academic and/or professional organizations. They are a particularly useful type of grey literature because they can provide the most up-to-date information in your field, especially when it comes to new, innovative, or emerging topics of study. Researchers may present preliminary findings to colleagues at conferences, meetings or symposiums before widely distributing them through more traditional channels.

Below are some suggested strategies and starting points for finding conference proceedings in the areas of dentistry and oral health. For more information or assistance accessing conference proceedings, please speak to a librarian. 

Conference proceedings that have been published within a journal or as a book or series may be included within the University of Toronto Libraries collection. These can be found by searching in the library catalogue. 

• To find proceedings published as articles within a journal, search for the journal by title and then browse its contents.
• Proceedings published as books or series can be found a number of different ways. Try searching by conference title, series title, conference author or corporate author.
• If you don't know this information or don't have a specific resource in mind, a keyword search may help you find what you're looking for. Try searching a key word or phrase along with the word "proceedings."
• "Congresses" is often used as the subject heading for conference proceedings. Using the Advanced Search option, select Subject from the dropdown menu and enter the word "congresses." You can then search all resources in the catalogue that are tagged as congresses by checking the Search Within box under the search bar. 

Conference proceedings are included in the following databases. Some databases offer the option to filter your results by document or content type. If this option is not available, try including keywords like proceedings, abstracts, or congresses in your search. It is often more effective to search for the conference title or broader topic, rather than the more specific research topics that you might find in the title of an abstract or presentation. 

Websites for conferences and the organizations that host them can be an important source for finding conference proceedings. These websites often include information resources like presentation slides, posters, speaker bios, programs, highlights, and even videos of conference sessions. Some of this content may be limited, only accessible for members, or available for purchase. However, there is plenty of valuable information out there that can be downloaded for free! 

The following are just a few of the many websites that contain dentistry and oral health related conference proceedings from both Canadian and international events.