The Répertoire International des Sources Musicales is an international non-profit organization, founded in Paris in 1952, with the aim of comprehensively documenting extant historical sources of music all over the world. It is the largest organization of its kind and the only entity operating globally to document written musical sources. RISM is one of the four bibliographic projects sponsored by the International Musicological Society and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres, the others being Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale, Répertoire international d'iconographie musicale, and Répertoire international de la presse musicale.

Harald Heckmann was a German musicologist who focused on source documentation, particularly supported by electronic data processing, and music iconography. Besides teaching at the Musikhochschule Freiburg, he established in 1954 and led until 1971 the German Archive for the History of Music, and afterwards was chairman of the German Broadcasting Archive. He held leading positions of international organisations such as the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML), Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM), and Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM).