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 2024 and continue to add new content.

Where a full text copy of the item is held, it is available to read and download for your own research. Sometimes publisher licence restrictions do not allow us to hold the full file; in those cases, the ‘Official URL’ link usually leads to the full item.

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, these 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 museums.

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.

Items in the repository have at least one creator or contributor who is (or who has been) a member of Science Museum Group staff.

Material not produced by or in association with Science Museum Group staff is not eligible for inclusion.

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 sorted by other means.

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.

For enquiries on specific items in the Science Museum Group repository, please email openaccess@sciencemuseum.ac.uk.

If you are the owner of the copyright or related rights in any of the material in the Science Museum Group Research 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 a third party ownership or another legal claim, please contact us in writing using the Contact form.

To enquire about an item held in any of the other repositories, use the ‘Contact’ link at the bottom of that repository.

Currently, all content in the Shared Repository Service is openly available and there is no login for public users. If a file you wish to view is embargoed, you must contact the relevant repository’s organisation to ask for access, please see below. Access is not guaranteed to any restricted item.

The Science Museum Group’s repository is part of the Shared Repository Service, which brings together the research outputs of a number of UK-based cultural heritage organisations. The Shared Repository Service was originally intended for IROs (Independent Research Organisations), which are non-Higher Education organisations in receipt of public funding for their research. The Service has since grown to include cultural heritage organisations that produce research but are not classed as IROs.

The Shared Repository Service 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 ‘Shared Repository Homepage’ link at the top of each page. When a search is done at this level, results indicate the organisation responsible for that research.

Our current partners in the Shared Repository Service can be found on the main Shared Repository homepage. The British Library manages the Shared Service on behalf of all participating organisations.

The platform is run on an open source software, DSpace-CRIS 9, and is hosted by 4Science.

You can find this at https://sciencemuseumgroup.iro.bl.uk/server/oai/

We would be delighted to tell you more about the Science Museum Group repository and the Shared Repository Service. For queries about the Shared Repository Service, please use the 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.