British Art Studies is an innovative space for new peer-reviewed scholarship on all aspects of British art. The journal prioritises research that tests the boundaries of “British” as a category and reflects critically on methods in art history. British Art Studies collaborates closely with authors to develop new ways of presenting research online. It also aims to further conversations about open access, digital sustainability, and digital humanities research.

Articles, proposals for features, and proposals for special thematic issues of the journal can be submitted at any time. Content that incorporates digital tools into art-historical scholarship is especially welcome.

Submissions should be sent electronically to the editors at journal@paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk.

Articles

To ensure your article can be considered, please send us:

• a complete manuscript in Microsoft Word .doc or .docx format;
• a text between 6,000 and 9,000 words (excluding footnotes);
• an abstract of no more than 150 words;
• a list of illustrations, with low-resolution reference files and complete captions.

Features

British Art Studies embraces the creative possibilities of publishing art-historical scholarship online. Our special features use a range of innovative formats, described below.

To propose a feature, please submit an abstract of roughly 500 words and a presentation of materials, such as images, multimedia, data sets, or a content list, to discuss with the editors. You may also propose a new feature format.

After an initial assessment, the editors may ask you to expand your proposal so that it can be considered by two anonymous peer reviewers.

Animating the Archive

A series that presents and annotates media and primary sources in an assemblage, which supports both linear and non-linear readings. Past example: “1964: A Year of Exhibitions” (Issue 12), by Stephen Bann

Artist Collaboration

An artist with a research-based practice shares a body of work. An essay or interview, or other material, contextualises their work within British Art Studies. Past example: “The Market Woman’s Story” (Issue 23), by Jacqueline Bishop

Conversation Piece

A guest coordinator invites a group of contributors to respond, in brief, to an idea or question. Past example: “Luxury and Crisis” (Issue 16), coordinated by Iris Moon

Curatorial Essay

An essay, shorter than a full-length article, which presents curatorial research connected to an exhibition, collection, and/or public programming. Past example: “Bill Brandt: Photography and the Printed Page” (Issue 16), by Martina Droth and Paul Messier, with photography by Richard Caspole and Robert Hixon

Look First

A pre-eminently visual examination of a subject, which is made possible by the digital format of the journal. Past example: “Deakin: Double Exposures” (Issue 1), by Paul Rousseau, James Boaden, and Jonathan Law

One Object

A series that uses an object, often from a museum collection, as a starting point for collaborative research. Past example: “The Hereford Screen” (Issue 5), coordinated by Ayla Lepine

Virtual Exhibition

A mode of presenting an argument or narrative that is primarily led by visual material, where multimedia is displayed in sequence alongside interpretative texts. Past example:“Performing Pacifism” (Issue 11), by Grace Brockington

Special Issues

The journal generally publishes one special themed issue per year. The content is selected by guest editors who are responsible for commissioning the material and providing authors with detailed editorial feedback. Guest editors each receive a fee of £1,000 on publication. Where appropriate, to support commissioning, British Art Studies may be able to provide funding and facilities to host a workshop that generates content for the planned issue.

To propose a special issue, please submit a brief of roughly 1,000 words to discuss with the editors.

Please keep the following in mind:

• We currently welcome proposals only for special issues that will publish in 2027 or beyond. Proposals will be reviewed next in late 2025.
• Proposals should deal with a major topic in the field, and aspire to become the definitive resource on that subject.
• The proposal should explain why the material would benefit from digital publication and how it would incorporate digital features.
• If you envision a supporting workshop, please include thoughts on its ideal structure and participants, and estimated costs.
• Special issue contents may derive in part from a conference, but they are not intended to translate event proceedings into a publication. Newly commissioned material must be included.
• We are interested in proposals that suggest collaboration or co-publication with other journals or institutions.

Peer Review

Submissions will be acknowledged by a member of the editorial team, and the editors will send those that meet the basic criteria to be peer reviewed. Owing to the volume of submissions received, please note that editors cannot provide feedback related to this initial internal assessment.

Peer review is normally conducted by two anonymous readers. Projects that employ methods such as statistical or technical analysis will be reviewed by readers capable of critically assessing their conclusions. To ensure transparency, the manner in which each article or feature has been reviewed is displayed openly on its respective webpage. The journal employs four different kinds of review, depending on the project:

• Double blind: The names of the author and reviewers are kept secret from each other.
• Single blind: The author does not know who the reviewers are.
• Open: The reviewer and author are known to each other.
• Editorial review: The material has been reviewed only by British Art Studies editors and guest editors.

We aim to send prospective contributors feedback from peer review within three months of assessing the submission or proposal. When the editors wish to develop material further, it is either accepted pending revisions or, more likely, the authors are asked to revise and resubmit.

Accessibility

The journal adheres to the accessibility principles established by Quire’s founders, developing the publishing framework to be usable by the broadest possible audience, including individuals with disabilities. The redesign ensures that content remains perceivable, operable, and understandable for users navigating with assistive technologies, as well as for those with limited bandwidth or browser functionality.

Collaborative Process

The editors often work closely with authors, alongside web designers, developers, film-makers, and artists, to shape the final publication. This results in an iterative and collaborative framework that incorporates not only the usual stages of peer review, rewriting, editing, copyediting, proofreading, and layout, but also adds further opportunities for team-based discussion and revision.

Most authors receive two or three rounds of edits from the British Art Studies team, which generally progress from broad developmental edits to line-edits. Due to the varied nature of our content, and close attention given each author, the total life cycle of an article or feature can take anywhere from nine months to eighteen months.

Funding

There are no fees or charges associated with making a submission to the journal. For accepted essays and features, British Art Studies funds and sources all reasonable use of images and media. This can include the development of new film and audio content, as well as digital features like maps, data visualisations, and virtual reconstructions. The quantity of illustrations permitted in an article, and any new media developed to accompany the research, are chosen by the editorial team.

Illustrations

There is no predetermined maximum or minimum number of illustrations in a British Art Studies article or feature. But you should select only illustrations that are strongly connected to your argument. If your submission is sent to peer review, your readers will be asked to comment on the suitability of your proposed illustrations. Please keep in mind that they can be in a variety of formats, such as image files, video or audio clips, maps, or charts.

Translation

The journal publishes research in English only but welcome conversations about the translation of articles from other languages, and the use of sources or materials in other languages. Please contact the editors if you have an idea to discuss.

Editor-in-chief

Alixe Bovey, Courtauld Institute of Art

Managing Editor

Baillie Card, Paul Mellon Centre

Contributing Editors

Jemma Field, Yale Center for British Art
Chloë Julius, University of Nottingham
Martin Myrone, Paul Mellon Centre

Digital Editor

Tom Scutt, Paul Mellon Centre

Assistant Editor

Tom Powell, Paul Mellon Centre

Picture Researcher

Maisoon Rehani, Paul Mellon Centre

Advisory Board

Grace Aneiza Ali, Florida State University
Craig Buckley, Yale University
Georgina Cole, The National Art School, Sydney
Amy Concannon, Tate
Nandini Das, University of Oxford
Sarah Victoria Turner, Paul Mellon Centre

Manuscripts should be formatted according to The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. On points where the CMS permits flexibility, please maintain internal consistency. Further style notes, including some exceptions to the CMS, are detailed in the document below.

Style Guidelines for British Art Studies

Author rights

Authors retain copyright of the content they publish with British Art Studies with no restrictions, while granting the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and Yale Center for British Art the right to distribute and continue showing the article in perpetuity under the journal’s preferred licence (Creative Commons CC BY-NC International 4.0). Authors may deposit any version, whether pre- or post-publication, to any repository or website.

Authors also consent to copies being stored by third-party digital preservation services including, but not limited to, The National Archives, the Internet Archive, and Portico.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is understood by the editors as failing to acknowledge the work or contributions of other people. This can include reusing material and paraphrasing material without appropriate citation.

Peer reviewers are asked to consider whether the author of a submission has plagiarised another publication or published the research before.

Following the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), authors will also be expected to retain documentation for any citations to unpublished work, such as personal communications.

Fair Dealing

In certain cases, exceptions to copyright that permit limited use of protected works without the permission of the copyright owner may be applied.

On this site, digital copies of resources are made accessible for research for one of the following reasons:

• They are in the public domain.
• The rights are owned by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art or the Yale Center for British Art.
• We make them accessible under an exception or limitation to UK copyright law, as outlined in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended).
• We have permission to make them accessible.
• There are no known restrictions on use.

We are confident that we have carried out due diligence in our use of copyrighted material as required, but we apologise for any inadvertent infringement of rights.

Third-Party Copyright

Where materials (text or image-based) published in the journal are still protected by copyright, the author must cite the relevant copyright information when reproducing it and comply with all other terms or restrictions that may be applicable to that material. Our in-house picture researcher will assist with obtaining the relevant permissions.

Take-Down Policy

The journal editors have made efforts to ascertain the rights status for all illustrations included in this publication, and have made agreements with rights holders or their representatives where appropriate. If you believe that we have made a mistake, please contact us at journal@paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk.

Include the following information with your request:

• name and contact information, including email address and phone number;
• identification of the resource for consideration of removal;
• the reason for the request.

The editors will respond promptly, normally within 15 business days. Providing URLs in your communication will help us locate content quickly. We may remove the resource from our site while we assess the validity of the request.

Upon completion of the assessment, we will take appropriate action and communicate that action to you.

Formats

British Art Studies is a digital publication and intended to be experienced online. It is built using Quire, an open access publishing framework developed by the Getty for presenting art historical scholarship on the web. The British Art Studies implementation extends and adapts Quire and, wherever possible, commissioned development work is released openly for others to adopt, adapt, and reuse.

Copyedited post-production versions of long-form articles are provided as PDF documents for ease of reading offline. Though special features are also distributed in PDF format, we recommend that readers return to the online platform to experience them in their native format.

Licences

Written content in British Art Studies is published under an Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Creative Commons licence. You are free to share, copy, and redistribute the material in any medium or format. We encourage you to adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the material. However, you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made. You may not use the material for commercial purposes.

If required by their funder, authors have the option to publish in British Art Studies under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons licence, which does permit reuse for commercial purposes. This policy meets the open access requirements of funders such as UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and any of its research councils.

Standards

British Art Studies is a completely open access publication. We do not charge readers or institutions to access the journal and anyone may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full text versions of its contents.

British Art Studies has been awarded a “Seal of Approval” from the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). This is a mark of certification for open access publishing, awarded by the DOAJ to journals that achieve a high level of openness, and adhere to best practice and high standards.

Digital Preservation

British Art Studies works with Portico to ensure long-term access to its content. Portico’s mission is to preserve scholarly literature published in electronic form and to ensure that these materials remain accessible to future scholars, researchers, and students. The Portico archive accepts content in the format in which it was originally published, and once deposited, maintains it indefinitely.

Additionally, the journal is indexed in WARC (Web ARChive) file format by the Internet Archive and through Preservica’s digital preservation software. This format captures the full HTML rendering of the website, including enriched digital content.

Identification

Every article and feature in British Art Studies contains unique Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) which can be cited in academic publication. In a similar manner to page numbers, DOIs provide current information about where an object can be found on the Internet. While the location of the object may change over time, its DOI will not change. We recommend that when DOIs are available, you include them for both print and electronic sources.

British Art Studies encourages contributors to register for an Open Researcher and Contributor iD (ORCID iD). The ORCID iD provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between you and your professional activities.