LibGuides: Art Research: Articles

Why use scholarly articles?

Scholarly articles are a major resource used in academic research. Scholarly journals are periodicals published for and by scholars and experts in a certain field. As you conduct your own research and write your papers, you will use scholarly articles to contexualize your argument in a scholarly conversation.

Why use a database?

The library subscribes to databases to provide access to periodical articles. The content contained in these databases are typically not freely available on the internet. You have to pay to get access to them. But with an article database, the library is paying for that access for you. That's why you have to go through the database to get the articles.

Don't ever pay to download an article from the internet--talk to a librarian, and we can more than likely get you a copy of the article at no charge to you. That's what libraries do!

Art Databases

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Provides access to thousands of scholarly journals in all disciplines, as well as magazines and newspapers. Coverage dates from 1975 to the present.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Provides the searchable full-text of historical runs of important scholarly journals in the humanities, arts, sciences, and business. Access for most journals include issues from Vol. 1 No. 1 to 3-5 years ago.
Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window
An online art reference source that covers Western and non-Western visual art. Includes the contents of Grove Art Online as well as additional Oxford art reference resources. Provides access to artists' biographies, images of artwork, as well as information on aesthetics, art terms, art movements, styles, theory, and criticism.
A video guide for Oxford Art Online is available: http://www.oxfordartonline.com./subscriber/page/guided_tour.
PAO (Periodicals Archive Online) This link opens in a new window
Provides access to backfiles of hundreds of digitized journals published in the arts, humanitites, and social sciences.
A user guide to PAO (Periodicals Archive Online) is available: http://proquest.libguides.com/pao.

Finding An Article with a Citation

You've found an article you are interested in locating. You need to see whether or not the Library has that journal full text.

We are going to use the "Full-Text Journals A-Z Search."
Underneath "Find journals by title or ISSN," next to "Title Begins With," type or cut and paste the title of the Journal (not the article title) in the search box.
The results list shows what years of the Journal are covered full-text in different databases, or in Print down on the Library's first floor Journal section. Click on the year you need.
On the Journal's homepage. Look for your year, volume, issue, then pages and article title.