a global perspective on the literature of art history: a case study from the expansion of art full...
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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
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