Open access research from our staff

As an institution we support open access. This means we make the externally funded research our staff produce freely available to all.

Below you can find our publications and research materials. Publication lists for 2013, 2012 and 2011 are available. For research published before 2011, please see the UK Government Web Archive.

Safeguarding the nation's digital memory: Towards a Bayesian model of digital preservation risk (paper)

The National Archives’ digital strategy commits us to 'becom[ing] a digital archive by instinct and design' and to 'measur[ing] preservation risks and publish[ing] the results'.

Poor relief and philanthropy in the British West Indies, 1834–1938

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relationship between state-organised poor relief and self-help initiatives in the Anglophone Caribbean, from emancipation to 1938.

Poverty, Work and Punishment: Vagrancy Across the Midlands, c.1824–1900

This thesis interrogates sources about vagrants and vagrancy across the workhouses of six poor law unions in the Midlands between 1834 and 1900.

The science of recordkeeping systems - a realist perspective

A doctoral thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University (2023).

Alexa, is this a historical record?

Digital transformation in government has brought an increase in the scale, variety, and complexity of records and greater levels of disorganised data.

Case study: using the DiAGRAM tool for digital preservation

As part of the Safeguarding the Nation’s Digital Memory project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, project partners collaborated to produce a Bayesian network encapsulating digital preservation risks and the interactions between them.

Re-envisioning access for the digital preservation community: challenges, opportunities and recommendations

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the degree of PhD in Digital Humanities at University College, London (2022) Digital material is not new and has been preserved for a couple of decades now.

Report of the digital preservation expert elicitation workshop held online (28 and 29 April 2020)

In 2020, the Applied Statistics and Risk Unit from the University of Warwick worked with digital archivists from The National Archives and other UK archival organisations to develop an integrated decision support system based on a Bayesian network to measure digital preservation risk.

More than just algorithms: A machine learning club for information specialists

Over the last few years AI and especially machine learning have become increasingly prominent in almost every industry, and the archive sector is no exception.

Defending technocracy? Communicating with the public about nuclear energy: historical perspectives

This thesis examines the communication strategy of the UK nuclear industry between 1975 to 1990.

Safeguarding the nation’s digital memory: Towards a Bayesian model of digital preservation risk (article)

Preservation of digital material is a challenge for which many archives feel underprepared and ill equipped.

Newswriting and satire during the Second and Third Anglo-Dutch wars (1665-1674)

Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of English Literature at the University of Bristol (July 2020).

Women in Chancery: An analysis of Chancery as a court of redress for women in late 17th-century England

Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Hull and The National Archives.

Safeguarding the nation's digital memory (poster)

This poster reviews the work undertaken on the development of a digital preservation risk model for The National Archives using a Dynamic Bayesian Network from 2018–2019.

Mind the gap: Rigour and relevance in collaborative heritage science research

This paper examines if there is a ‘rigour-relevance gap’ in collaborative heritage science research and what enables and impedes effective collaboration between academic researchers and users of research evidence in practice.

Uses of archives as creative activity: what does it mean to be creative within the archive and library profession?

Archivists and art librarians are well-versed in developing activities and projects using archives and library materials in object-based learning activities, and in engaging artists and creative practitioners with archives and special collections.

‘Almost too ruinous to be repaired’: the Unknown Treasures project at The National Archives and the Court of Common Pleas brevia files

In nearly 700 years of activity the position of the Court of Common Pleas in the English legal scene was paramount.

Archives matter

This article charts the evolution of the UK government’s ambitious vision for the archive sector, Archives Unlocked.

Information journeys in digital archives

Archival collections have particular properties that make physical and intellectual access difficult for researchers.

Cloth, copyright, and cultural exchange: textile designs for export to Africa at The National Archives of the UK

Among around three million designs registered for copyright and held at The National Archives in Kew, South West London—the archive of UK government records—are thousands of textile samples made for consumers in Africa.

The experience of war widows in mid 17th-century England, with special reference to Kent and Sussex

Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leicester.

Crowding out the Archivist? Implications of online user participation for archival theory and practice.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the degree of PhD in Information Studies: Archives and Records Management.

The effectiveness of dust mitigation and cleaning strategies at The National Archives, UK

Cultural heritage institutions allocate considerable resource to mitigating the risks of dust in their collections.

The effectiveness of dust mitigation and cleaning strategies at The National Archives, UK

Cultural heritage institutions allocate considerable resource to mitigating the risks of dust in their collections.

Discovery: Developing a National Archives’ Catalogue

For the past few years The National Archives has been working to completely rebuild its online resources and extend our Discovery service to describe records held by other archives.

Probing the 1970s: A case study: Inflation, public relations, and the health administration, 1972

The history of 1970s Britain has been re-appraised by journalists and historians in recent years.

A decision framework for the preservation of transparent papers

Transparent papers are frequently found in collections, often dispersed among other materials, and can be in need of some degree of treatment or rehousing, thus proving a significant preservation challenge.