For ever increasing high recording densities of magnetic tape drives, improved dimensional stability of the polymeric films used as magnetic tape substrates is required. During storage and use, creep and shrinkage occur simultaneously and it needs to be minimized. To obtain constitutive relationships for creep and shrinkage, these contributions need to be separated and modeled. A mathematical model based on Kelvin-Voigt models has been developed to characterize simultaneous creep and shrinkage behavior to obtain the constitutive relationships for creep and shrinkage. Experiments have been performed to separate out creep and shrinkage effects and this model has been used to compensate the effect of shrinkage on creep data and to get true creep data. The experimental creep and shrinkage data of various films have been modeled to obtain viscoelastic parameters. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.