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FAQ: the National Museums Scotland Research Repository and the Shared Repository Service
1. What content is held in the National Museums Scotland’s repository?
The repository contains journal articles, datasets, book chapters, conference papers, books, blog posts, research reports, exhibitions, theses, and a few other research outputs.
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 National Museums Scotland do?
Research underpins all activities at National Museums Scotland. We play a key role in the UK research community and work with national and international partners to support research of all kinds relating to the wide range of our collections.
Our staff have extensive research expertise, we lead and support research projects, and supervise a range of collaborative PhDs.
4. Who can deposit content?
Items in the repository have at least one creator or contributor who is a member of National Museums Scotland staff. National Museums Scotland Research Associates and collaborative PhD students also contribute their research items to the repository.
Material not produced by or in association with National Museums Scotland staff is not eligible for inclusion.
5. Are the National Museums Scotland’s major collections held in the Research Repository?
No, the repository contains only National Museums Scotland- produced research. To explore the Museum’s collections of over 12 million items, browse our website or search the collections database.
6. 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 sorted by other means.
7. Can I re-use the items for my research?
Research outputs are made available 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. Licence information is only displayed where known.
8. I can’t log into the Shared Repository Service or the National Museums Scotland Research Repository, please help!
Currently, all content in the Shared Repository Service and each affiliated repository 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.
9. How can I get in touch about an item in the National Museums Scotland Research Repository?
If you are the owner of the copyright or related rights in any of the material in the National Museums Scotland 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 via the Contact form.
To enquire about an item held in any of the other repositories, use the ‘Feedback’ link at the bottom of that repository.
10. What is the Shared Repository Service?
The National Museums Scotland’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.
11. What organisations are involved in the service and how is it managed?
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.
12. What software does the Shared Repository Service use?
13. Can I access the Repository’s OAI-PMH endpoint?
You can find this at https://nms.iro.bl.uk/server/oai/
14. How can I find out more?