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may be due to a publisher or researcher request, for example, it may contain sensitive information or the file has been superseded by a newer version.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 underpins everything we do at the British Library. We play a key role in the UK research community and work with national and international partners to support research of all kinds. Our staff work with scholarly colleagues from the UK and globally, on projects ranging from traditional collection-based research, digital humanities and data infrastructure, to analysis with significant learning and public engagement outputs.

Our staff have extensive research expertise, we lead and support research projects, and supervise a range of collaborative PhDs, research placements and fellowships.

Items in the repository have at least one creator or contributor who is a member of British Library staff. British Library research affiliates, Collaborative Doctoral students and PhD placement students also contribute their research items. Some outputs are produced by British Library departments rather than individuals, including many of the datasets in the repository.

Material not produced by or in association with British Library staff is not eligible for inclusion.

No, the repository contains only BL-produced research. To explore the Library’s collections of over 150 million items, browse our website or search the catalogue.

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 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 any enquiry about the British Library Research Repository, please email openaccess@bl.uk.

If you are the owner of the copyright or related rights in any of the material in the British Library 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 as indicated in the British Library's Terms and Conditions.

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

The British Library’s repository is part of the Shared Research 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 intention is to maintain and expand this national infrastructure for IROs and other UK cultural heritage organisations by adding other organisations to the Service. On an individual level, all partners will continue to add content to their repositories, of a variety of item types.

The British Library will also provide access to a General Purpose Repositories for smaller institutions, such as city/county council heritage services, charitable and collaborative doctoral partnership networks. For more information, see the British Library’s ‘About’ page.

The Shared Repository Service is also applying for Core Trust Seal accreditation as part of our commitment to building a sustainable and trustworthy repository platform for the sector.

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

We would be delighted to tell you more about the British Library Research Repository and the Shared Repository Service. Simply send us an email to get in touch or use the form on the Feedback page.