Open research questions in Museums and Cultural Heritage

What the literature leaves open

• The study focused on a single case study of the Nanjing Imperial Examination Museum, - The sample size was limited to 348 valid responses, - The study did not explore the generalizability of the findings to other thematic museums or cultural contexts

  Must-be, attractive, or indifferent? The asymmetric satisfaction mechanisms for cultural and creative products in thematic museums · 2026 · DOI

• Further research could explore the applicability of the Kano model to other cultural and creative products, - Future studies could investigate the role of visitor motivation and expectations in shaping satisfaction judgments, - Research could also examine the impact of different product development strategies on visitor satisfaction

  Must-be, attractive, or indifferent? The asymmetric satisfaction mechanisms for cultural and creative products in thematic museums · 2026 · DOI

• ABSTRACT Play‐based STEM learning at exhibits is a feature of children's museums and science centers; yet little is known about how these exhibits support young children's STEM engagement.

  InterPLAY : A Framework to Describe Play and STEM Engagement at Exhibits for Young Children · 2026 · DOI

• This scoping review identifies existing research on disability awareness training and identifies gaps in the literature.

  Staff Training on Disability Awareness in Museum Settings: A Scoping Review · 2025 · DOI

• However, various studies have yielded conflicting results regarding the impact of immersion technology on willingness to adopt it.

  Adoption of digital intangible cultural heritage: a configurational study integrating UTAUT2 and immersion theory · 2025 · DOI

• Novak recognized that its potential is insufficiently explored and encouraged its application in different disciplines and fields that deal with concepts and their relationships.

  The concept map as a tool for analyzing museum objects · 2024 · DOI

• Future research should focus on the implementation of artificial intelligence and digital transformation in museums. Future research should explore the potential of personalized systems, visitor behavior tracking, and data-driven museum services.

  Mapping Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation in Museums · 2026 · DOI

• There is a need for a better understanding of the current research structure in the field of artificial intelligence and digital transformation in museums. There is a gap in the literature regarding the implementation of artificial intelligence and ethical museum governance.

  Mapping Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation in Museums · 2026 · DOI

• Further studies can investigate the effect of authenticity labelling on other outcomes, such as learning outcomes or motivation. Studies can explore the role of original objects in different learning contexts, such as classrooms or online environments.

  The Effect of Authenticity Labelling of Museum Objects on Students’ Psychological State of Interest in Biology Education · 2026 · DOI

• Teachers' professional development needs are not always met by formal PD offerings. Informal PD and formal PD are often presented as a dichotomy. The design of science centres may not support teachers' professional development.

  Using the Contextual Model of Learning to Examine Informal Teacher Professional Development Whilst Accompanying Science Centre Field Trips · 2026 · DOI

• The informal professional development that teachers experience has been less examined. There is a lack of research on the impact of field trips on teachers' professional development.

  Using the Contextual Model of Learning to Examine Informal Teacher Professional Development Whilst Accompanying Science Centre Field Trips · 2026 · DOI

• The current Neolithic site exhibitions present practical problems including rigid forms and lagging public transformation. There is a gap in public understanding of prehistoric civilization.

  Museum curation and public transformation of archaeological findings: taking the exhibition of Neolithic sites as an example · 2026 · DOI

• To explore the implementation of cultural mediation in the formation of professionals in museums. To study the impact of the redefinition of the museum as a situated space on the working conditions of professionals.

  Repensar la formación museológica: la mediación cultural como marco profesional crítico · 2026 · DOI

• The traditional formation of professionals in museums is centered on objects and technical knowledge. The integration of cultural mediation is a gap in the current approach.

  Repensar la formación museológica: la mediación cultural como marco profesional crítico · 2026 · DOI

• The study identifies the challenge of representing complex and nuanced histories in military museums. The paper highlights the challenge of balancing the need to commemorate the past with the need to acknowledge the complexities and controversies of the British-Canadian relationship. The study notes the challenge of representing the relationship between Britain and Canada in a way that is respectful of Indigenous perspectives.

  British Legacy in Canadian Military Museums · 2026 · DOI

• There is a gap in understanding how military museums depict the relationship between Britain and Canada. The study identifies a need to examine how Canadian identity has been constituted vis-à-vis Britain’s over time. The paper highlights the importance of considering the symbolic purpose of the British-Canadian relationship in military museums.

  British Legacy in Canadian Military Museums · 2026 · DOI

• Future research should continue to develop and refine decolonial curatorial methods. It should explore the implications of decolonial curatorship for institutional transformation and social justice.

  Decolonial Curatorial Methods: Impacts on Collections, Narratives, and Publics · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the development of decolonial curatorial methods. It notes that many cultural institutions remain tied to the colonial project and require transformation.

  Decolonial Curatorial Methods: Impacts on Collections, Narratives, and Publics · 2026 · DOI

• There is a gap in literature on critical cataloguing in museums, despite significant bodies of literature on critical cataloguing in libraries and archives. Museums have unique cataloguing practices and requirements that differ from those used in libraries and archives.

  Structuring Critical Cataloguing in Museums · 2026 · DOI

• The projects described here do not represent the totality of all of the critical cataloguing work that has taken place, and continues to take place, in museums and with museum collections data. First, this research examines working taking place in English-speaking UK, USA, and Canada. The linguistic scope reflects the author’s primary language, and the geographic scope represents the locations of the institutions identified during the literature review as well as those of the participants whose involvement was secured during the recruitment phase of the research. The geographic scope of research participants also likely reflects the position of the researcher being based in the UK and having a history of work and study in North America. This focus does not intend to suggest that these are the only areas in which critical cataloguing work is occurring in museums, but instead represents the range of information and sources that the author was able to engage with using the methods described above. Second, there is work occurring that is difficult to learn about because knowledge about it has not been published or made publicly available. For example, a blog post about a survey on cataloguing queer heritage in UK museums points at the existence of LGBTQIA+- focused critical cataloguing in a number of museums, but details about what is taking place or where are not available. The only available information about some projects appears to be through news articles (as discussed above) or references made within other articles, such as the Field Museum developing a disclaimer statement for their collection (Briscoe et al. 2022) and the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York being listed as museums working on adding artists demographic data to catalogue records by SFMOMA.35 In all of these cases, the coverage or mentions of the projects do not provide insight into decisions or actions, they only serve to make known that critical cataloguing work of some kind took place. What all of this does do, though, is give credence to the hypothesis that there is, and has been, critical cataloguing work taking place in museums that is not yet widely known. Finally, there is critical work taking place in museums that may involve critical cataloguing but which is not discussed under this framing. For example, this was hinted at when participants discussed what they saw as related institutional work but not critical cataloguing, and there is extensive literature on co-curation and other community collaborative work in museums which may involve a cataloguing component. However, while this related work may offer additional subcategories to the taxonomy, the alignment between existing literature and interview responses in regards to the major category types gives confidence that the structure of this taxonomy is consistent with the kinds of critical cataloguing work that are happening in museums today.

  Structuring Critical Cataloguing in Museums · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in understanding how social processes generate community around cultural sites. It highlights the need to examine the role of material objects in collective reflection.

  Community Formation: Public Art, Classrooms, and Museums as Anchors of Collective Thought · 2026 · DOI

• Digital media and immersive technologies are promoted as ways to enrich intangible cultural heritage (ICH) experiences in cultural tourism, yet their experiential value remains unexplored or is perceived as unnecessary.

  Participatory, purposeful, and digitally smart: a bottom-up approach to designing intangible cultural heritage tourism experiences · 2026 · DOI

• The study does not provide a comprehensive analysis of the technical aspects of AI implementation in museums. The sample size of the study is limited to 406 participants. The study does not explore the long-term implications of AI usage in museums.

  AI Definitions in Flux: · 2026 · DOI

• Further research is needed to explore the long-term implications of AI usage in museums. The study suggests that future research should investigate the development of a shared institutional language around new technologies. The ethical implications of AI implementation on authenticity and trust should be further examined.

  AI Definitions in Flux: · 2026 · DOI

• The study faced challenges in terms of sampling and data collection, as the survey instrument was administered in English and the sample was limited to tourists who visited museums in Kazakhstan.

  Museum Experiences and Attitudes Toward Tangible Cultural Heritage in Kazakhstan: Evidence from Domestic and International Tourists · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Museums and Cultural Heritage

• Institutional Ecology, `Translations' and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39 · Social Studies of Science · 1989 · 7,787 citations
• The Presentation of Self in the Age of Social Media: Distinguishing Performances and Exhibitions Online · Bulletin of Science Technology & Society · 2010 · 897 citations
• The Value of Museum Collections for Research and Society · BioScience · 2004 · 601 citations
• Cultural tourism and business opportunities for museums and heritage sites · Tourism Management · 1995 · 388 citations
• Using the contextual model of learning to understand visitor learning from a science center exhibition · Science Education · 2005 · 285 citations
• Designs for learning: Studying science museum exhibits that do more than entertain · Science Education · 2004 · 263 citations
• Auschwitz: Museum Interpretation and Darker Tourism · Annals of Tourism Research · 2002 · 258 citations
• The museum environment and the visitor experience · European Journal of Marketing · 2000 · 249 citations
• “Not Designed for Us”: How Science Museums and Science Centers Socially Exclude Low‐Income, Minority Ethnic Groups · Science Education · 2014 · 229 citations
• The Effect of Visitors ‘ Agendas on Museum Learning · Curator The Museum Journal · 1998 · 221 citations

Most recent work

• Interactive visual communication for cultural learning and preservation: A mixed-methods study of user engagement with China's intangible heritage · Acta Psychologica · 2026
• Defending heritage in the digital age: Polyphonic discourses and the reconfiguration of protest spaces in tourism activism · Annals of Tourism Research · 2026
• Transforming through moral injury: Visitor encounters with difficult heritage · Annals of Tourism Research · 2026
• Digital Museums as Learning Platforms: Assessing Their Impact on Historical Education · Jurnal Pendidikan Humaniora · 2026
• Exploring the Digital Transformation Dilemma of Chinese Museums: A Comparative Study · Curator The Museum Journal · 2026
• Education as Evaluation: Centering Visitors’ Voices · Journal of Museum Education · 2026
• How Child-Friendly Are Art Museums? A Landscape Review of Programs and Initiatives in the 100 Most Visited Art Museums · Journal of Museum Education · 2026
• Reflections on the Evolution of Evaluation in Museum Education · Journal of Museum Education · 2026
• Evaluation Practices and Increasing Belonging in Museum Education Experiences · Journal of Museum Education · 2026
• Curating flexible learning spaces in museums with a virtual reality application · Education and Information Technologies · 2026

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