Subject guides: Design: Articles and Design Precedents in Databases

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Using databases for research

Research databases are organised collections of digital information that can be easily searched, such as journal articles, books, or images. Databases can be general or subject specific, and can include citations, or abstracts (short summaries), and/or full text articles and books. The sources indexed may be written by scholars, professionals or generalists.

Unlike a general Google search, using a database means you can be sure the information you find is high-quality and reliable. Finding 'scholarly' resources is also easier through a database.

There are many types of databases that you can use for your research. The database you choose will depend on what type of information you want to find. Once you choose a database, use keywords on your topic to search. Then try using the 'filter' options, such as publication date, content type, or subject area to refine your results.

Key Databases for Design

Art & architecture source (EBSCOhost)
A good starting point for finding scholarly journal articles across a wide range of Art, Design and Architecture topics.
ARTbibliographies modern (ProQuest)
Provides full abstracts of journal articles, books, essays, exhibition catalogs, PhD dissertations, and exhibition reviews on all forms of modern and contemporary art, dating from the late 19th century onwards.
Communication & mass media complete (EBSCOhost)
An authoritative research and reference resource for journals in the communication discipline.
Design and applied arts index (ProQuest)
Records for articles, news and reviews published in design and applied arts periodicals from 1973 onwards. It covers both new designers and the development of design and the applied arts in a wide range of disciplines.

Google Patents
Google Patents lets you search through millions of patents from over a dozen patent offices including United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and those of other countries.

Design and applied arts index (ProQuest)
Records for articles, news and reviews published in design and applied arts periodicals from 1973 onwards. It covers both new designers and the development of design and the applied arts in a wide range of disciplines including graphic design, interior design, Web design, animation, product design, industrial design, garden design, and more.
J. Walter Thompson : advertising America
Documents the history, operation, policies, accomplishments, and the research and creative processes behind the creation of advertisements of one of the world's largest and oldest advertising firms.

Advertising Art in Magazines
Famous artists, when they weren't painting the covers for the magazines, paid their bills by doing art for advertisers. Some of the things they did can stand up with the best of their covers, and much of it is fascinating today for what it tells us about life and popular culture of the past. Over 2,800 print graphics have been digitised and preserved in this collection.

Harper's bazaar archive (ProQuest)
Access to the backfiles of both the US and UK editions of Harper’s Bazaar, from 1867 to the present, considered a powerful lens into American, British, and international fashion, as well as popular culture and society.
Vogue archive (ProQuest)
Contains the entire run of Vogue magazine (US edition), from the first issue in 1892 to the current month. Find images by garment type, designer and brand names. A unique record of American and international fashion, culture and society.
Bloomsbury fashion central. Berg fashion library
A digital hub for interdisciplinary research in fashion and dress. Includes images, academic eBooks, a museum directory, a unique exhibition archive, reference works, and teaching resources are available. Includes: Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion.

ACM digital library
Contains the full-text collection of all ACM publications, including journals, conference proceedings, technical magazines, newsletters and books, and a collection of curated and hosted full-text publications from select publishers.
Art & architecture source (EBSCOhost)
A good starting point for finding scholarly journal articles across a wide range of Art, Design and Architecture topics.
Compendex (Elsevier)
A comprehensive interdisciplinary engineering database. It provides access to citations and abstracts from 1000's of engineering journal titles, conference proceedings and technical reports
Design and applied arts index (ProQuest)
Records for articles, news and reviews published in design and applied arts periodicals from 1973 onwards. It covers both new designers and the development of design and the applied arts in a wide range of disciplines.
IEEE Xplore digital library
A full text database in the disciplines of electrical and electronics engineering. Provides access to The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) transactions, journals, books, conference proceedings of IEEE and IEE published since 1988, and all current IEEE Standards. The Institutes are the world's major electrical and electronic engineering authorities. Note: Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) browser not supported.
ProQuest
Multidisciplinary portal - covers academic and professional disciplines such as business, law, education, computing, science, technology, engineering, arts, and medicine, and consist of scholarly journals, books, video & audio, dissertations & theses, newspapers and more. Search multiple databases simultaneously or select from amongst individual database titles.
ScienceDirect (Elsevier)
Full text platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature. Journal articles, books and major reference works. Twenty four major subject disciplines are covered, with a focus on physical sciences and engineering, life sciences, health sciences, and to a lesser extent social sciences and the humanities.
Scopus (Elsevier)
An abstracting and indexing citation database of peer-reviewed scientific, technical, medical and social sciences literature. It includes journal and monograph titles, Open Access journals, conference proceedings, trade publications, patent records and quality web sources.
TRID : the TRIS and ITRD database
Provides access to more than 1.3 million records of transportation research worldwide.

ACM digital library
Contains the full-text collection of all ACM publications, including journals, conference proceedings, technical magazines, newsletters and books, and a collection of curated and hosted full-text publications from select publishers.
Art & architecture source (EBSCOhost)
A good starting point for finding scholarly journal articles across a wide range of Art, Design and Architecture topics.
IEEE Xplore digital library
A full text database in the disciplines of electrical and electronics engineering. Provides access to The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) transactions, journals, books, conference proceedings of IEEE and IEE published since 1988, and all current IEEE Standards. The Institutes are the world's major electrical and electronic engineering authorities. Note: Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) browser not supported.
ScienceDirect (Elsevier)
Full text platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature. Journal articles, books and major reference works. Twenty four major subject disciplines are covered, with a focus on physical sciences and engineering, life sciences, health sciences, and to a lesser extent social sciences and the humanities.
SpringerLink
A comprehensive online collection of scientific, technological and medical journals, books, book series, protocols, and reference works. Subject coverage is multidisciplinary with an emphasis on the sciences, technology and biomedical literature.
Taylor & Francis online
Access to thousands of e-books and journals in science, technology, engineering, medicine, humanities and social science.

Australian architecture database (Informit)
Indexes and abstracts articles from material held by the Stanton Library, North Sydney Council. Subject coverage includes architects, architecture, building, interior design and landscape architecture. Coverage: 1980 to 2015.
Art & architecture source (EBSCOhost)
A good starting point for finding scholarly journal articles across a wide range of Art, Design and Architecture topics.
Art & architecture archive (ProQuest)
Digitised backfiles of many of the foremost art and architecture magazines of the twentieth century, it is a unique collection of primary sources for studying the history of these subjects.
JSTOR
Academic journals, books and primary sources from a wide range of academic publishers and university presses. Titles span across disciplines, including core areas such as business & economics, social sciences, education, history, language & literature and science. Also contains the ARTstor image database.

JSTOR sustainability collection
Key journals as well as open research reports from leading research institutes worldwide. The collection looks at sustainability and resilience through a broad lens, spanning over more than 30 disciplines.
Material ConneXion
Covers the sustainability, function and physical properties of materials used in design and construction. Entries include a description of the material, properties and the manufacturer contact details.

Australian transport index (Informit)
A bibliographic database that indexes and abstracts published and unpublished Australian material on transport, including journal articles, conference papers and all AARB Group and Austroads publications. Subject coverage includes road safety, transport economics, transport administration, intelligent transport systems, transport and the environment, and public transport.
Car design news
Publishes written, visual and video content about global automotive and mobility design, reporting from motor shows, tech shows etc.
TRID : the TRIS and ITRD database
Provides access to more than 1.3 million records of transportation research worldwide.
World Transit Research
A free repository of research papers, reports, research abstracts and links to research findings from leading research journals. Developed and run by the Public Transport Research Group at the Institute of Transport Studies, Monash University.

Bridgeman education
Search and download from this database of over 300,000 high quality art images.
JSTOR
Now contains the ARTstor database - click the 'images' tab to search and download from a database of more than 300,000 digital images, covering many time periods, cultures and visual disciplines.
Oxford art online
A great starting place for your research. Find artist biographies, images, and encyclopedia articles that span ancient to contemporary art and architecture.

Looking for more digital images?
Explore the Digital Images Library Guide for more links to image collections.

Marketing, Standards and Statistics

Business source complete (EBSCOhost)
Search journals in all disciplines of business & economics. Additional full text, non-journal content includes financial data, books, case studies, industry reports, market research reports, country reports, company profiles, SWOT analyses and more.
IBISWorld
Detailed analyses of selected Australian industries, covering major players, industry performance and outlook, market characteristics, industry participants and recent news articles.
Passport
Global market research database providing statistics, analysis, reports, surveys and breaking news on industries, countries and consumers worldwide. This online market research tool monitors industry trends and gives users strategic analysis and a market size and market share database for products across key countries.

EP Patents (Elsevier)
Include US and European patents grants and applications covering a broad range of topics within the scientific, applied science, technical and engineering disciplines.

Australian Design Rules for Vehicle Design
The Australian Design Rules (ADRs) are national standards for vehicle safety, anti-theft and emissions. The ADRs are generally performance based and cover issues such as occupant protection, structures, lighting, noise, engine exhaust emissions, braking and a range of miscellaneous items.

The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics statistics
The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) provides economic analysis, research and statistics on infrastructure, transport and regional development issues to inform both Australian Government policy development and wider community understanding.
Australian Infrastructure and Transport Statistics Yearbooks
Provides a comprehensive evidence base to examine long-term and emerging trends as well as inform policy development and regulatory reform in the transport, energy, water and communications sectors. Published in December each year.
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Australia’s national statistical agency and an official source of independent, reliable data and information relating to Australian people, society and economy.

Using Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a subset of Google which searches specifically for scholarly material on the web.

It locates journal articles, theses and dissertations, books, conference papers and other research material from a variety of sources including academic publishers, professional societies, institutional repositories and databases.

Its coverage is strongest in science, technology and medicine.

Strengths:

Useful when searching "Grey Literature" such as conference proceedings
Enables interdisciplinary searches
Accesses multiples types of documents (articles, books, conference proceedings)
Helps identify who is publishing in particular areas of research
Results are ranked by relevancy

Be aware that:

Content is not always equivalent to the scholarly or peer-reviewed content in databases
Difficult to perform a specific search with precise results
Gaps in coverage - a lot of information is not freely available on the web
Citations can be incomplete, and can only be exported one at a time

Full text linking

Google Scholar allows you to set Google Scholar preferences to link to the full text of articles cited in Google Scholar which are available from Monash University Library. Follow these steps to ensure full text links show in your search results, so you can avoid getting stuck at paywalls.