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ARTH1010: Understanding Art: Finding Articles

Using Databases to Find Research Articles

When conducting academic research, you should try to find as much information about previous research on your topic, as possible. 

One of the best places to look for articles is on the Library’s Databases tab.  Databases range from general to subject-specific, can be used from off campus, and many offer full-text access to articles.

If your topic covers more than one subject (Social Sciences and Education, etc.) you'll want to search more than one database to get the full picture.

Visit our main Databases page, for a full list of resources available to you!

Art Databases

Search All isn't always the best place to go when doing research.  In fact, some our our databases actually offer more control over you searching!  

The following databases are good starting points for your Art research.  The contents of each are different (with some overlap) so it's always a good idea to check in multiple databases to ensure that you find all relevant information.

If you topic touches on another subject, such as education, health, or gender studies, be sure to look in those databases as well (see below).

  • Academic Search Premier
    Large, interdisciplinary full-text database contains over 4,800 full-text publications, including academic journals, magazines, books, and trade publications. Offers broad subject coverage for a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, area studies, biology, chemistry, ethnic and multicultural studies, food science and technology, general science, geography, law, mathematics, music, pharmaceutical sciences, physics, psychology, religion and theology, women's studies, and many other fields. Funded by the the New Jersey State Library.
  • Art Abstracts
    The Art Abstracts database provides high-quality indexing of over 600 periodicals covering all topics in art from 1984 to the present, including 280 peer-reviewed journals, as well as indexing and abstracting of over 13,000 art dissertations, and indexing of almost 200,000 art reproductions. Art Abstracts indexes publications from several countries covering fine, decorative and commercial art as well as photography, folk art, film, architecture, and much more. [1984 - present]
  • Artstor Digital Library is now Images on JSTOR
    Images on JSTOR (formerly the Artstor Digital Library) is a database containing over 2 million images from the world's museums, archives, libraries, scholars, and artists. Use it to find images for papers, presentations, and study in the humanities. There's also a set of tools for sharing images, curating groups of images, downloading them directly into PowerPoint presentations, and comparing and contrasting images.
  • Credo Reference's Academic Core
    The Credo Reference database is a portal to over 1,300 full-text reference titles from over 120 major publishers. Easy to search and browse, the Credo platform provides access to text, images, maps, statistics, and graphic concept maps to illustrate connections among and between topics. The titles, which range across subjects in art, biography, business, geography, history language, law, literature, medicine, music, philosophy, psychology, religion, science, the social sciences, and technology, are fully integrated through the Credo search platform, and the Credo database also provides numerous points for accessing other Cheng Library resources. Credo is a most useful starting point for general research on almost any topic.
  • FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals
    The International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) brings together institutions dedicated to rescuing and preserving films. FIAF's editorial staff, along with its Affiliates, produces the International Index to Film Periodicals which offers in-depth coverage of film and media studies, theory and history from academic and popular film journals. This database contains FIAF's "Treasures from Film Archives," a detailed index of the silent-era film holdings of archives from around the world. [ 1972 - Present ]
  • Grove Art Online
    Grove Art Online is a full-text portal to high-quality art reference sources, including the Grove Dictionary of Art, the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics (2nd edition), The Oxford Companion to Western Art, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. The database also includes links to art image sources including ARTstor, Bridgeman Education, the British Museum, the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Images for College Teaching, Art Resource, Artists Rights Society, and numerous international art galleries and artists.
  • HIV, AIDS and the Arts Collection (on the JSTOR Platform)
    This open access digital collection features primary sources in all art forms focusing on the intellectual and social history of HIV and AIDS. From the earliest years of the AIDS crisis, arts in all media were a critical tool for fighting fear, apathy and inaction. More than four decades have now passed since AIDS was first recognized in the American press. Landmark projects, such as Visual AIDS, have brought the artistic output of AIDS activists into the public eye. This collection strives to build upon this work to preserve and make accessible this output by adding coverage of those who may have remained in the margins of these histories. The collection currently offers over 1,200 items but is planned to include over 75,000 pages as it is further developed.
  • Images on JSTOR
    Images on JSTOR (formerly the Artstor Digital Library) is a database containing over 2 million images from the world's museums, archives, libraries, scholars, and artists. Use it to find images for papers, presentations, and study in the humanities. There's also a set of tools for sharing images, curating groups of images, downloading them directly into PowerPoint presentations, and comparing and contrasting images.
  • JSTOR Arts and Sciences Collections (I through IX, and XIV) and Life Sciences Collection
    Archive of over 1,650 major journals in the humanities, social sciences, business, education, area studies, mathematics and statistics, life sciences, and much more. Funding for the acquisition of the JSTOR Arts and Sciences V, VI, VIII, and IX Collections was provided by a generous gift from the Student Government Association. [18th Century - Present]
  • Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD)
    Open Access Theses and Dissertations is a resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Over 1,100 colleges, universities, and research institutions contribute data to provide access to over 6.9 million these and dissertations.
  • ProQuest Central
    ProQuest Central is a large multidisciplinary database indexing over 14,000 publications, the majority of them available in full text. Over 160 subjects areas are covered extensively in this product including business and economics, health and medical, news and world affairs, technology, social sciences, and more. The publications include over 6,500 scholarly journals, over 3,600 trade publications, over 2,000 magazines and newspapers, and over 800 industry reports, plus dissertations and theses, company annual reports, and videos.
  • ProQuest Ebook Central
    Full-text access to over 150,000 electronic books from a wide variety of academic publishers, covering every subject.

    [Ebook Central Overview and Searching (Video 2:37)] [Quick Start Guide (2 pages)]
    e-book
  • YuJa (William Paterson University Media Library)
    The University's Media Library contains video produced by members of the University campus community as well as licensed video from third party vendors.streaming video
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Databases 2

Scholarly v. Popular

When conducting research, you will usually be asked to find Scholarly Articles, or artices from a Scholarly Journal, rather than popular sources (like magazines and newspapers).

Not sure what the difference is between scholarly and popular?  Check out this short tutorial: Scholarly v. Popular

Is It Scholarly?

How can you tell if you've found a scholarly article?

Some of our databases allow you to limit your results to Scholarly or Peer-Reviewed (possibly Refereed) articles.  In some cases, this isn’t so clear.  You can either check with your professor or a librarian, or you can search for the journal name in Ulrichsweb (from on campus).