Museum factors affecting the ageing process of organic materials: review on experimental designs and the INVENVORG project as a pilot study

Abstract

Abstract The most common way followed for the determination of degradation mechanisms of organic materials is the application of physiochemical methods after accelerated aging. In recent years, there has been a remarkable research activity towards the development of alternative decay determination methods in organic materials based on statistics. We first present a survey of European research projects in this area together with summaries of their results. Second, we describe the ongoing project entitled ‘Investigation of the environmental factor effects on organic materials constituting the natural and cultural heritage’ in which statistics plays a crucial role. In particular, we present a statistical methodology that is based on a designed experimental and inferential protocol which will guide the research throughout the project. By providing basic statistical and design concepts, we present guidelines to design statistical protocols that are necessary for scientifically sound quantitative experiments.