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Art Research Guide

This guide provides resources for Art courses

Citation style guides for Art

The most often used citation styles for Art is the Chicago Manual of Style, and sometimes the MLA Handbook for Writers. For more assistance, please consult a librarian or your professor.

The Art Bulletin is considered the flagship journal of the discipline. This journal probably provides the safest choice if you seek a model style.

Listed below are a few good online citation style guides, as well as print style guides which are located at the library service desk.

ZoteroBib: the quickest way to build an accurate bib

Zotero now has a quick and accurate tool to create a bibliography entry!

  • go to https://zbib.org/
  • enter a URL (website), ISBN (book), DOI (online article), PMID (PubMed), arXiv ID (author), or title
  • click on the Cite button
  • select a Bibliography style
  • copy to clipboard to paste into your document
  • formatted citations are stored in your browser until you delete them

Annotated bibliographies

How to cite images

Visual sources can be difficult to cite, so be sure to 1) include as much information as you can, 2) format the elements consistently, and 3) adapt the general formats as described in published citation style guides as needed. If you have questions, please contact me.

Citing images from an image database, such as ARTstor, should include most, if not all, of this information (or as much of it as can be easily determined from the source).

  • creator's name
  • title of the image as given in the database
  • date of creation
  • name and location of the institution that houses the image (if any)
  • dimensions (if known)
  • material or format (painting, sculpture, photograph, etc.)
  • database name and URL
  • date accessed the database

Writing about Art

Writing Center

The Writing Center offers online, real-time appointments. Students can make appointments as usual via http://elon.mywconline.com and meet with a consultant via video and text chat. Appointments will be available during the usual hours and all appointments will be scheduled for eastern standard time. For more information: https://www.elon.edu/u/academics/writing-excellence/the-writing-center/.

Elon's Writing Center will help you understand an assignment, as well as brainstorm, draft, revise, edit & document sources.