The repository contains a large range of outputs. These are produced by, or collaboration with, our staff, research associates and PhD students. Content includes: journal articles, datasets, book chapters, conference papers, books, blog posts, research reports, exhibitions and theses. The Research Repository is always growing as our staff continue to make their research openly available.

Most content published on the Research Repository is intended to be openly available. If a file is available to view or download, you can do so, providing you follow any accompanying licence or rights holder information for that item.

If an item’s file is showing as ‘embargoed’, this means that it is not currently available for download. This may be due to a publisher or researcher request, for example, it may contain sensitive information or the file has been superseded by a newer version.

Where publisher licence restrictions do not allow us to hold the full file, you may be able to find the file at either the ‘Official URL’ or ‘Related URL’ link.

Research is a core element of the National Library of Scotland strategy. We play a key role in the Scottish and UK research community and infrastructure.

Our staff have extensive research expertise. Staff undertake research and are involved in collaborative projects. They supervise a range of collaborative PhDs, research placements and fellowships.

We work with national and international partners to support a variety of research on projects ranging from traditional collection-based research, conservation, digital humanities, Artificial Intelligence, data infrastructure, and public engagement.

Items in the repository have at least one creator or contributor who is a member of National Library of Scotland staff. Our collaborative PhD students and placement students also contribute their research items to the repository. Some outputs are produced by teams rather than individuals, including many of the datasets in the repository.

Material not produced by or in association with National Library of Scotland staff during their employment with the Library is not eligible for inclusion.

No, the repository contains only National Library of Scotland- produced research. To explore the Library’s collections, browse our website or search the catalogue at www.nls.uk.

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 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.

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.

For general enquiries, please use the Contact form at the bottom of the repository website.

If you are the owner of the copyright or related rights in any of the material in the National Library of 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 ‘Contact’ link at the bottom of that repository.

The National Library of 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.

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://nls.iro.bl.uk/server/oai/

The British Library, who manage the Shared Repository Service, would be delighted to tell you more about the Shared Repository Service. Simply send them an email to get in touch or use the form on their Research Repository Contact page.