Art and design databases

Peer reviewed academic databases

There are two types of academic databases; full-text databases, which give full access to all their articles, and bibliographic databases (or indexes), which give details of articles, but which you must find yourself.

• DISCOVER searches through many databases as well as the library catalogue.

• Art Full Text  Provides access to the full text of nearly 500 leading art periodicals, museum bulletins and yearbooks. It indexes reproductions of works of art that appear in periodicals. Not all the contents are available in full text.

• JSTOR Arts and humanities database searching over 1, 700 academic journals.

• Communication and Mass Media Complete full text databases including mostly media journals (film, television etc.)

• ISI Web of Knowledge bibliographic database only, includes the Arts and Humanities Citation Index, a multidisciplinary database with very broad coverage.

• Google Scholar can function as a bibliographic databases if used with care. It can search a huge range of sources across various subject areas. Beware that it may miss results that a specialist academic database, like Art Full Text, will find and that you will be unable to access many of your hits. You should not rely solely on it.

Non academic databases: 

• Stylesight trend forecasting package, especially useful for Fashion students. Includes forecasting images and analysis from global fashion shows etc.

• A-N: the Artists Information Company  Provides a knowledge bank for professional visual artists covering subjects such as exhibiting, how to make a living as well as up to date information on job opportunities.