Frequently Asked Questions: The Science Museum Group repository and the Shared Repository Beta Service
1. What content is held in the Science Museum Group's repository?
The repository contains research outputs by Science Museum Group staff, such as journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, books, videos, and research reports. We launched the repository in early 2024 and will continue to add new content.
2. Is everything available to download?
Where a full text copy of the item is held, it is available to read and download for your research. Sometimes publisher licence restrictions do not allow us to hold the full file; in those cases, an ‘Official URL’ link usually leads to the full item.
3. What kind of research does the Science Museum Group do?
As an IRO (Independent Research Organisation), the Science Museum Group supports a thriving programme of research, which aims to promote new ways of understanding our collections, audiences, and exhibitions. Core strengths include the history and material culture of science, technology, engineering, medicine, and the media, with developing expertise in digital innovation.
Our research programme includes:
1. Research projects. Often funded by external funding bodies, deliver academic research relating to our collections, audiences, and concerns.
2. Collaborative Doctoral Awards. We host doctoral students engaged in research across the Science Museum Group, who work in a variety of ways to develop knowledge, gain professional experience, and contribute to a range of programmes and projects.
3. Research events. We host and curate research events on the history of science, technology, medicine, material and visual culture, and museum.
4. SMG Journal. The open access Science Museum Group Journal presents the global research community with peer-reviewed papers relevant to the work of science museums everywhere.
5. Artefacts consortium. Artefacts is an association of historians of science, technology, engineering and medicine working in museums and academic institutions who use material culture in historical study and public displays.
4. Who can deposit content?
Items in the repository have at least one creator or contributor who is (or has been) a member of Science Museum Group staff.
Material not produced by or in association with current or former Science Museum Group staff is not eligible for inclusion.
5. What is the ‘relevance’ order of search results?
When sorted by relevance, results are displayed according to an algorithm taking account of the frequency and position of the search terms within each item and across all content. Your search term might occur in the files as well or instead of the displayed metadata.
Note you can change the display order to show search results by date of publication.
6. Can I re-use the items for my research?
Research outputs are made available in the Repository on terms agreed with the authors/depositors of the outputs. As a user you may use the items only if you abide by the licence or other terms under which it has been released, e.g., the terms of a specific Creative Commons Licence. Where no licence is displayed, unless indicated otherwise items made publicly available in the Repository are protected by copyright with all rights reserved.
Sometimes individual files have their own file-level licences, and these may be different for each file where there's more than one. Look for licence information at the record level and also at the file level. Licence information is only displayed where known.
7. What is the Shared Research Repository?
The Science Museum Group repository is part of a collaborative service which brings together the research outputs of a number of Independent Research Organisations (IROs), i.e., non-Higher Education organisations in receipt of public funding for their research. The Shared Research Repository provides a window on the research produced by such organisations through a single point of access and discovery.
Each partner has its own repository which can be searched separately, but you can also explore the combined content of all partners by clicking on the green ‘Shared Research Repository’ bar at the top of each page. When a search is done at this level, results indicate the museum, gallery, archive or library responsible for that research.
8. What IROs are involved in the service and how is it managed?
The IROs are the British Museum, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology), National Museums Scotland, National Trust, Science Museum Group, and the British Library. The British Library hosts the shared service and is exploring options for extending the service.
9. What research outputs do the other repositories contain?
We are all UK cultural or heritage organisations – museums, galleries, archives, libraries and data institutions, and our research is often based around our collections. Items include “German music broadsheets, 1500 – 1550” (BL, book chapter); “Wild and Majestic: Romantic views of Scotland” (NMS, exhibition); “A revision of Scleria (Cyperaceae) in Madagascar” (RBG Kew, journal article); “Pudding Mill Lane (Crossrail XSK10)” (MOLA, archaeological dig dataset); “Dolphins at the British Museum: Zoomorphic Calusa Sinkers” (British Museum, journal article).
10. How can I get in touch about an item in the Science Museum Group repository?
For general enquiries about the repository, use the contact form from the Repository’s home page. If you are the owner of the copyright or related rights in any of the material in the Repository and you believe that use of this material infringes your intellectual property or any other rights, or you believe that the material may be subject to third-party ownership or another legal claim, please contact us in writing as indicated in the Contact page.
To enquire about an item held in any of the other repositories, consult the Terms of Use at the bottom of each repository.
11. How can I find out more?
We would be delighted to tell you more about our repository and the shared service. For queries about the Shared Repository Service please use the contact form on the Contact page. For queries specifically relating to the Science Museum Group repository, please email openaccess@sciencemuseum.ac.uk to get in touch.