Library Guides: Visual Art (Practice Based Art): Find Journal Articles

Develop your search terms

Do you know which search terms to use to find great articles on your topic?
Experiment with your keywords in one of these broad search options before diving into more specialised search locations.

Discovery searches across a large number of databases. Use Advanced Search and subject filters for the best results.
Proquest Central is similar to Discovery, searching across multiple databases
Google Scholar is a convenient search tool, but you'll need to set up Find it @ Unimelb links to effectively use Google Scholar for library research.

Once you've found a few good resources, explore some subject-specific databases and journals.

Why are there so many places to search?

Visit the Comparing Search Pathways guide for a quick explainer.

Art Databases

Art & Architecture Complete (EBSCO)
Art & Architecture Complete provides full-text coverage of 380 periodicals and more than 220 books. In addition, this database offers cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for more than 780 academic journals, magazines and trade publications, plus over 230 books. The database also provides selective coverage for 70 additional publications and an Image Collection of over 63,000 images provided by Picture Desk and others.
ARTbibliographies Modern (ABM) (ProQuest)
ARTbibliographies Modern (ABM) provides full abstracts of journal articles, books, essays, exhibition catalogs, PhD dissertations, and exhibition reviews on all forms of modern and contemporary art, with approximately 12-13,000 new entries being added each year. Entries date back as far as the late 1960s. ABM contains information on modern and contemporary arts dating from the late 19th century onwards, plus photography since its invention and includes abstracts of English and foreign-language material on famous and lesser-known artists, movements, and trends.
Art Index Retrospective (H.W. Wilson)
Art Index Retrospective™: 1929 -1984 provides users access to over half a century of art literature covering fine, decorative, and commercial art. Content includes high-quality indexing of nearly 600 publications, many of which are peer-reviewed, and citations of over 25,000 book reviews.
ARTstor Digital Library
Artstor is JSTOR’s cross-disciplinary collection of rights-cleared images from around the world. The collection provides more than one million digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences from outstanding international museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, and artists and artists' estates.
Design and Applied Arts Index : DAAI (ProQuest)
This database is the premier source of information for all aspects of design and crafts, from textiles and ceramics to vehicle design, advertising and sustainability. Covers journal articles, exhibition reviews and news items from 1973 to the present.
Index of Medieval Art
The Index of Medieval Art, earlier known as the Index of Christian Art, is a thematic and iconographic index of early Christian and medieval art objects begun at Princeton University in 1917. The Index records works of art produced without geographical limitations from early apostolic times up to A.D. 1550. The database contains thousands of work of art records, most of which have an accompanying image. Many of these images have never before been digitized and are published here for the first time. The database also offers the ability to search using the ICONCLASS classification system on a limited basis. Nearly all of the subject terms have now been paralleled with ICONCLASS notations.
International Bibliography of Art (ProQuest)
The definitive resource for scholarly literature on Western art, IBA is the successor to the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA), and retains the editorial policies which made BHA one of the most trusted and frequently consulted sources in the field. Publications covered include at least 500 core journals, with an emphasis on specialist and rare titles that are not covered by other indexes, plus detailed coverage of monographs, essay collections, conference proceedings and exhibition catalogues.
Underground & Independent Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels
Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels is the first ever scholarly, primary-source database focused on adult comic books and graphic novels. Here are the works of artists both celebrated and overlooked, alongside interviews, criticism, and journal articles that document the continual growth and evolution of this artform. The Library has access to volumes I & II of Underground & Independent Comics.

Design & Art Australia Online
This is an open source, freely accessible scholarly e-Research tool that presents biographical data about Australian artists, designers, craftspeople and curators

Using Advanced Google Search

Use the site or domain limiter in Google Advanced Search to quickly find information on websites and online publications.

For example:

Limit search results to only show results from e-flux by including site:e-flux.com or Frieze using site:frieze.com in your search.

Searching effectively with Google

Art Research Journals and Professional Magazines

Artforum international
ARTMargins
ARTMargins publishes scholarly articles and essays about contemporary art, media, architecture, and critical theory. ARTMargins studies art practices and visual culture in the emerging global margins, from North Africa and the Middle East to the Americas, Eastern and Western Europe, Asia and Australasia. The journal acts as a forum for scholars, theoreticians, and critics from a variety of disciplines who are interested in art and politics in transitional countries and regions; postsocialism and neo-liberalism; postmodernism and postcolonialism, and their critiques; and the problem of global art and global art history and its methodologies.
Art Monthly
The British Art Journal
c mag
C Magazine, established in 1984, is a contemporary art and criticism periodical that functions as a forum for significant ideas in art and its contexts. Each issue explores a theme that is singularly engaged with emerging and prevailing perspectives through original art writing, criticism, and artist projects - publication website
more...less...
c mag website: https://cmagazine.com/

Access articles via library catalogue link.
e-flux
Frieze (print only)
Print copies held at Southbank Library.
The International journal of art & design education
Journal for Artistic Research (JAR)
The Journal for Artistic Research (JAR) is an international, online, Open Access and peer-reviewed journal for the identification, publication and dissemination of artistic research and its methodologies, from all arts disciplines.
Journal of Visual Art Practice
Journal of Writing in Creative Practice
Publishes articles on writing, ethics and practice, as well as writing as, for, and in art, craft and designing.
PAJ : a Journal of Performance and Art
Integrates theatre and the visual arts in charting the directions of new work in performance, video, film and music. Featured in the issues are artists' writings, critical commentary, interviews and dialogues, historical documents, critical commentary, performance texts and plays.
Tate etc
Tate's art magazine, published three times a year.
Visual Arts Research: educational, historical, philosophical and psychological perspectives

ArtsHub & ScreenHub

ArtsHub
The Library's institutional subscription does not give access to all functions on the ArtsHub site. Library users cannot upload a resume or curriculum vitae or cover letter to use when submitting job applications from within ArtsHub. These features are restricted to personal subscribers.
ScreenHub
Screen Hub is the daily email News and Jobs service for people working in the Australian film and television industries.

Multidisciplinary databases

Academic Search Complete (EBSCO)
Academic Search™ Complete is a multidisciplinary full-text database, providing access to more than 8,600 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,500 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text it offers indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 journals and a total of more than 13,200 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.
APA-FT - Australian Public Affairs - Full Text (Informit)
APA-FT provides full text coverage of selected scholarly articles on current affairs, economics, humanities, law, literature, politics and social sciences and is produced by the National Library of Australia.
Humanities Index (ProQuest)
This database is an international abstracting and indexing tool for research in the humanities. BHI indexes almost 400 internationally respected humanities journals and weekly magazines published in the UK and other English speaking countries, as well as quality newspapers published in the UK.
Current Contents Connect (ISI)
This database provides complete tables of contents and bibliographic information from the world's leading scholarly journals and books; also includes relevant, evaluated web sites and documents. Current Contents Connect is comprised of subject editions and collections: Agriculture, Biology & Environmental Sciences (ABES); Social & Behavioral Sciences (SBS); Clinical Medicine (CM); Life Sciences (LS); Physical, Chemical & Earth Sciences (PCES); Engineering, Computing & Technology (ECT); Arts & Humanities (AH); Business Collection (BC); Electronics & Telecommunications Collection (EC).
JSTOR
JSTOR is a digital library of thousands of academic journals, books, and primary sources from a wide range academic publishers and university presses. Titles span across disciplines, including core areas such as business & economics, social sciences, education, history, language & literature and science. Current journals are linked and cross-searchable with archival journals and ebooks on JSTOR, helping patrons discover, use, and build upon a constantly expanding range of academic content.
Project Muse Journal Collection
Project MUSE offers full-text current and archival articles from 500+ scholarly journals from major university presses covering literature and criticism, history, performing arts, cultural studies, education, philosophy, political science, gender studies, and more. Updated continually.
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global
This database is the world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1743 to the present day and offering full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997.
Social Theory
Social Theory offers documents that explore the complexities and interpret the nature of social behavior and organization. Includes major theorists such as Theodor Adorno, Jean Baudrillard, Simone de Beauvoir, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Émile Durkheim, Michel Foucault, Jürgen Habermas, Robert Merton, Dorothy E. Smith, and Talcott Parsons.
TVNews (Informit)
TVNews indexes Australian television news, current affairs and selected documentaries from the free-to-air networks with links to the digitised video content in a compressed format. All individual stories from a particular broadcast are indexed with a detailed synopsis. TVNews is updated daily, with stories appearing on an evening news broadcast generally being available for access the next morning. Key titles include: Australian Story, Catalyst, Current Affair, Dateline, Foreign Correspondent, Four Corners, Insiders, Insight, Landline, Lateline, Meet the Press, Q and A, Today Tonight, World News Australia, and many more. Coverage commences with September 2007 and is updated daily.
Web of Science
Web of Science Core Collection provides quick, powerful access to the world's leading citation databases. Authoritative, multidisciplinary content covers over 12,000 of the highest impact journals worldwide, including Open Access journals and over 150,000 conference proceedings. You'll find current and retrospective coverage in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities, with coverage to 1900.

Article Requests

Article requests

Found an article that looks great, but can't find it online?

Check if we have the article in print by searching for the journal title in the library catalogue
If we have the journal at another campus, submit an Intercampus Copying Request for a PDF scan
If you can't find the journal in our collection at all, request a PDF copy of the article with Interlibrary Loan
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