A Global Perspective on the Literature of Art History: A Case Study from the Expansion of

Art Full Text

Mark Gauthier, VP, Indexing & Editorial Services, H.W. Wilson

Art Full Text Expansion Project

Project Rationale• Database growing, but unsystematically• Cessation of Bibliography of the History of Art• Enhance international scope• Include new open-access publications• Align source list with art history curricula

Assumptions: What We Thought We Would Learn

• Coverage skewed toward Europe and North America, away from Asia and Latin America

• Faster rate of growth of literature from Asia and Latin America

• More publishing in English, even from non-English-speaking countries

• More electronic publishing, especially outside Europe and North America

Periodicals Study Set

Source: UlrichsWeb.com

Status: Active

Serial Type: Academic/Scholarly

Subject: Art or Architecture

Results: 949 Titles

Indexing Coverage of Art & Architecture Periodicals

DATABASE Number of Journals

Art & Architecture Complete 183

Art Full Text 153

ArtBibliographies Modern 84

Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals 166

Total: 292

Unique Titles by Database

Database No. of TitlesArt & Architecture Complete 20Art Full Text 10ArtBibliographies Modern 18Avery Index 34

All Art & Architecture Titles

657

292949 Titles

31% Indexed

69% Unindexed

Growth in Periodical Literature by Decade

Pre-1950s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s0

200

400

600

800

1000

109161

243

363

524

679

934

Percent of Journals Indexed by Start Date

Pre-1950s

1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

54% 57%

43% 43%

30%22%

15%

Indexing status is skewed towards older journals

Geographic Distribution of Journals

REGION ALL JOURNALS INDEXED JOURNALS

Africa 1% 0%

Asia 11% 4%

Europe 52% 52%

Latin America 5% 2%

North America 25% 37%

Pacific 5% 5%

Total n = 949 n = 292

North America is overrepresented among indexed journals, at the expense of Asia and Latin America

Geographic Distribution of Indexed Journals:Trend over Time

Region 1950s 2000s

Africa 0% 0%

Asia 7% 4%

Europe 67% 52%

Latin America 2% 2%

North America 22% 37%

Pacific 2% 5%

European coverage is lessening, as North American coverage is growing.

LanguagesAll Journals Indexed Journals

English 64% 82%

German 11% 14%

Spanish 10% 4%

French 9% 12%

Italian 9% 9%

Chinese 6% 0%

Total No. of Titles 949 292

Indexing is skewed toward the traditional languages of art history research

Art & Architecture Journalsn = 949

Place of Publication Language of Publication

46%

54%

English-language CountriesNon-English Countries

64%

36%

English PublicationsNon-English Publications

English Language Periodicals by Decade

Decade Percentage of All Titles Percentage of Indexed Titles

Pre-1950s60% 65%

1950s65% 72%

1960s65% 73%

1970s67% 77%

1980s66% 80%

1990s64% 81%

2000s64% 82%

While the proportion of English-language titles is steady, its dominance among indexed titles is increasing

H.W. Wilson’s Experience with Foreign Language Indexing of Art & Architecture

• Hire NYC-area indexers with BA or MA in Art History• Screen for reading knowledge of major European

languages• Rely on English abstracts for “minor” languages• Major challenge: indexer productivity• Indexer solution: Google Translate• User solution: WilsonWeb automatic translation

Library Holdings of Indexed Journalsmedian = 105; n = 292

100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 More0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160141

63

3117 11 4 7 4 5 1 6

Number of Holding Institutions

Freq

uenc

y

Library Holdings of Unindexed Journalsmedian = 18; n = 657

100 200 300 400 500 600 More0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200598

36 10 7 3 0 3

Number of Holdings

Freq

uenc

y

Reasons for Inclusion of Titles with Low Holdings

• Underrepresented subject area• Highly specialized content• Geographic representation• Linguistic representation• Medium• Age

Evaluating Low-Holdings Journals

• Editorial focus• Publisher/Sponsor• Editorial board• Authors• Bibliographies; Notes• International scope• Graphic design and illustrations• Frequency and currency

Open-Access Titles: Growth

1980s 1990s 2000s0

102030405060708090

100

2

18

92

Decade

Num

ber o

f Titl

es

Open-Access Titles: Indexing Status

Indexing status is skewed toward print publications

18

82

IndexedUnindexed

Open-Access: Geographic Distribution

REGION NUMBER OF TITLESAsia 3Europe 50Latin America 3North America 26Pacific 10

Total 92

Why the dominance of Europe among open-access publications?

What We Learned

• More comprehensive coverage of new publications• Increase coverage of Latin American, Asian and Pacific

publications; maintain coverage of European titles• Broaden foreign language coverage, so long as the

scope of the content is international• Increase coverage of open-access publishing• Decrease reliance on holdings as a quality indicator• Add 80-150 core art & architecture titles to current

list