When can a museum be considered an academic institution? I must admit that although I deeply believe museums, no matter how small, play a very important role in almost any sort of research, proving their scientific character can be sometimes quite awkward. Is there any set of fixed criteria that would allow a museum to be considered as an academic institution if met?
My answer is "localized".


In France there is a distinction between museum of arts (arts in a broad sense, antiquities being arts for instance) and museum of natural sciences (biology, paleontology, etc.). The latter is considered an academic institution: part of the people working there have the title of associate or full professor, and they can have PhD students.
In some european countries (France, UK, belgium at least), some museums are part of a university, so I think we can say that they are academic places.


The real question may be then "are you an academic if you work in an academic institution", and I guess the answer is no.