A new editorial entitled Research for development and the role of ‘grey literature’ in southern African research production has just been published in ecancermedicalscience. The editorial, by Eve Gray, of the University of Cape Town, explores the role of open access publishing in the global South, particularly Africa.

Dr Gray describes the phenomenon of `grey literature’ – the results of research which are collected into informal papers that are never published.  These works are often of great use and importance but are not easy to access or disseminate.  A solution needs to be found so that the traditions of ‘grey literature’ and conventional journal publishing can be successfully combined.