The changing role of museums in the global scientific landscape

This paper presents the results of a combined study to the research performance of the Dutch Leiden-based National Museum of Natural History Naturalis, in the context of the global changing position of museums in the open scientifi c literature. In the Netherlands, the museums are stimulated to create a research portfolio, an initiative which has many consequences. One of the consequences is the assessment of the research conducted within the walls of the Dutch Museums. The study of Naturalis’ research performance consists of two parts, one based on publications in the Web of Science (WoS) and one part of documents not covered as source material in the WoS, but cited in the WoS. The results of the present study for Naturalis are put in the context of the world-wide changing pattern of publication output of museums in the open scientifi c journal literature.