Sampling for research purposes

Guidelines for applicants

• The National Museum’s application form together with relevant appendices (PDFs) should be completed and sent to the collections manager at the relevant museum department at the latest 4 months before sample taking.
• Applicants can expect a reply within 3 months from submission
• When permission has been granted, sampling of the artefact(s) or material should be arranged with the collections manager. The National Museum’s Department of Conservation and Science is responsible for taking samples from museum artefacts – standard rates apply.
• Any surplus sample material should be returned to the National Museum when the analysis has been undertaken.
• The results of the analysis must be reported to the National Museum within 3 years.
• The results must be published within 3 years. Undergraduate and PhD theses are not considered as publications.
• On publication, involved scientists from the National Museum should be included as co-authors or, in the case of minor cases, credited accordingly. Agreement on this should be reached at the same time as agreement to sample.
• If the results have not been published within the 3-year period the National Museum reserves the right to use the results in its own research.
• the National Museum reserves the right to put the results in the museum documentation systems as reference data, and to use these data forthwith when working with the artefacts/material in other contexts.
• Sampling from artefacts/material deposited at/on loan to other museums apply to the same application process and guidelines as above described.
• Sampling of material deposited at the Faculty of Health and Medicine, Universty of Copenhagen (Panum Building) and the Natural History Museum of Denmark is the responsibility of the staff of these institutions. These will also only be granted by the same application process as above described.

Applicants can expect a definitive reply to their application within three months of submission.