Publications » The Art Bulletin
Preparing an Accepted Manuscript for Publication
For general questions of style, please use The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010). For spelling, refer to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary or Webster’s Fourth.
Title
The title of the article may be no longer than eighty-five characters, including the subtitle.
Text
Double-space ALL copy: text, quotations, endnotes, captions, bibliography, abstract, author’s biographical statement. Use 12-point Times New Roman type for all elements. Use italic type for words to be set in italics. Do not use boldface or other sizes or styles or font. Number all pages. Begin each section or element (text, endnotes, etc.) on a new page. Do not break words (hyphenate) at ends of lines. Do not justify the right margin.
Endnotes
Notes should be numbered consecutively and submitted as endnotes, not footnotes. Captions should also be on separate pages, double-spaced. Endnote reference numbers in the text should use superscript figures placed after punctuation.
Quotations
Quotations must be absolutely accurate and carefully transcribed. An ellipsis (three spaced dots) indicates words dropped within a sentence. A period and three spaced dots indicates a deletion between sentences.
Unless governed by fair use, authors must obtain permission to quote published material.
If you are responsible for some of the translations, add at the head of the notes: “Unless otherwise indicated, translations are mine.”
Foreign-language quotations in both text and notes should be translated into English, unless the significance of the quotation will be lost. The original text may be included in a note if it is unpublished, difficult to access, or of philological relevance to the article.
“Emphasis added” indicates your italicization in quoted matter.
Brackets in quoted material indicate author’s interpolation; in inscriptions they indicate letters lost through damage. Parentheses indicate letters omitted as the result of abbreviation in inscriptions.
All references to publications and the like should appear in full form (including place of publication and publisher) only once. Subsequent appearances should use a short form: surname of author, short title, and page reference. (Consult The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed., 16.42, for details). Do not use op. cit.
Captions
Captions should be numbered consecutively. Figure numbers do not include a period.
The Art Bulletin includes full caption information, whenever available and appropriate, in this order:
Figure number with no period
Artist
Title (in italics)
date
medium on support
dimensions in inches (h. x w. x d.) followed by dimensions in centimeters (1 inch = 2.54 cm)
Name of collection
City of collection
Other collection information such as “gift of . . . ,” accession number, etc.
Copyright or credit-line info regarding both the artwork and the photograph (in parentheses)
Basic Caption Style
3 Sandro Botticelli, Primavera, ca. 1482, tempera on panel, 6 ft. 8 in. x 10 ft. 4 in. (2.03 x 3.15 m). Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence (artwork in the public domain; photograph provided by Scala/Art Resource, NY)
17 Power figure (nkoski), Kongo-Vili culture, present-day Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), late 19th or early 20th century, wood and unidentified material, height 9-3/8 in. (23.8 cm). Formerly collection Henri Matisse (acquired 1906), now private collection (artwork in the public domain; photograph provided by Éditions Klincksieck, published under fair use)
Artist, title, date, medium, and dimensions are separated by commas, and these elements are followed by a period. Collection, city, and credit lines follow, separated by commas. After this, in parentheses come all copyright and photograph credit lines or notice that the author is invoking fair use. There is no terminal period, unless the basic caption information is followed by a descriptive sentence, which is only permitted in exceptional cases.
Not all images are of works of art or other objects, and therefore not all of the above data can be included for every image. For example, works of performance art, architecture, photographs that are themselves artworks, etchings and other prints, etc., may in some cases not include dimensions or medium or other data. Other data specific to the argument of the text may be included.
In some instances, the object data is irrelevant to the argument; however, to aid future readers and researchers who consult the journal, complete object data should be provided if possible. Instances where reliable caption information is not available, or where its inclusion is in the author’s opinion problematic, should be discussed with the manuscript editor at the stage when edited manuscript is received.
Since authors are responsible for obtaining reproduction permissions whenever necessary, captions should include all elements specified in letter(s) of permission from the rights holder, institution, and/or photographer, although The Art Bulletin reserves the right to edit these to conform to its style.
Captions in The Art Bulletin must distinguish clearly between a copyright in an artwork and a copyright in a photograph of an artwork (where the artwork may or may not be in the public domain). A copyright notice and/or the © symbol should only be included when requested by a lender, and must indicate clearly whether the copyright being asserted is in the underlying artwork or in the photograph of it. Consult the Copyright Term Charts for further information. When in doubt, the author should include the language requested by the lender of a photograph and the language requested by the rights holder granting permission. (Frequently, these are separate documents from separate sources.)
In general, an artwork reproduced in The Art Bulletin using a digital scan from a published book should not include the publication information for that book in the caption, but only the collection information and any actual information relating to copyright permission. It is extremely rare for the publisher of a book to own the rights to individual images; therefore, authors should seek copyright permission for artworks (other than those in the public domain) from the copyright holder, not from the publisher of the book that is the source of the scan. (Publishers may be helpful in providing information about the identity or address of a copyright holder.)
An occasional exception to this is a diagram, floor plan, map, or other line drawing in a book. If they were created on commission for the book, the publisher may hold the copyright. If not, the book or publisher may be consulted to find the proper credit information (often in a “credits” section at the back.)
In cases where the reproduction in The Art Bulletin is of a period book illustration and the publication information about that book is germane to the argument of the essay, publication information about the book may be included in the caption at the author’s discretion.
CAA does not use the phrase “courtesy of” in image captions; use “photograph provided by” instead.
Use:
Location unknown
Private collection
Collection of the artist
More Sample Captions
Please note: These are samples, not definitive models of what all captions must contain. The Art Bulletin aims to maintain consistency in caption style with some latitude.
- Baccio Bandinelli, Hercules and Cacus, 1525–34, marble, height 16 ft. 9 in. (5.05 m). Piazza della Signoria, Florence (artwork in the public domain; photograph provided by James Smith, Rome)
- Attributed to Cherubino Alberti, Pietà, engraving after Michelangelo, ca. 1572. Albertina, Vienna
- Parthenon, east frieze, detail
- Tree of Vices, Le Verger de Soulas, northern French, ca. 1290. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, MS fr. 9220, fol. 10r
- Roman sarcophagus, Death of Meleager, 3rd century CE, detail. Musée du Louvre, Paris (artwork in the public domain; photograph © James Smith, Rome)
- Jean Béraud, The Church of Saint-Philippe-du-Roule, Paris, 1877. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William B. Jaffe, 1955, 55.35 (artwork in the public domain; photograph all rights reserved, The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
- Pierre Bonnard, Street Corner, ca. 1897, color lithograph, from Quelques aspects de la vie de Paris, Paris, 1899. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928, 28.50.4(3) (artwork in the public domain; photograph all rights reserved, The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
- Étienne-Jules Marey, path of the different joints while walking, from Développement de la méthode graphique par l’emploi de la photographie, Paris, n.d., 48, fig. 34
Here, the reproduction in The Art Bulletin is of a period book illustration and the publication information about that book is germane to the argument of the essay. In this instance, publication information about the book is in the caption. However, in general, an artwork reproduced in The Art Bulletin using a digital scan from a book should not include the publication information for that book, only the collection information and any actual copyright information.
- Cathedral of Ste-Marie, Oloron-Ste-Marie, west portal (photograph by the author)
- History Master and workshop, Pulkau Passion Altarpiece (open), ca. 1518–20, painted wings and predella panels: oil on spruce, with carved and gilded shrine figures in limewood, attributed to Michael Tichter, overall height approx. 32 ft. 9⅝ in. x 9 ft. 10⅛ in. (10 m x 3 m). Church of the Holy Blood, Pulkau (artwork in the public domain; photograph by the author)
- Follower (or workshop) of Jan Polack, Intercession of Christ and Mary before God to Halt the Plague (Pestvotivbild), ca. 1517. St. Peters, Munich (artwork in the public domain; photograph by Alberto Luisa, provided by the Erzbischöfliches Ordinariat München, Kunstreferat)
- Attributed to Gu Kaizhi (ca. 344–ca. 406), Admonitions of the Court Instructress (Nüshi zhen tujuan), 5th–6th century copy after Gu Kaizhi, former handscroll, now mounted on two panels, ink and colors on silk, paintings panel, 9¾ x 97 in. (25 x 248.5 cm), colophons panel, 9¾ x 128¾ in. (25 x 329 cm). British Museum, London (artwork in the public domain; photograph provided by the Trustees of the British Museum). This figure, read from left to right and top to bottom, re-creates the painting’s mounting as a handscroll between about 1746 and about 1916.
- Tsuchida Bakusen (1887–1936), Hair (Kami), 1911, hanging scroll, ink and colors on silk, 31¾ x 33⅜ in. (80 x 85.5 cm). Kyoto City University of Arts, University Art Museum (artwork in the public domain; photograph provided by Kyoto City University of Arts)
- Albrecht Dürer, Mocking of Christ, woodcut with verses by Benedict I Cheldonius, title page of Passio domine nostri Jesu. . . . (the Large Passion), Nuremberg, 1511. British Museum, London, 1895-1-22-618 (artwork in the public domain; photograph © the British Museum).
PASSAGES IN NON-ROMAN SCRIPT
Long passages in non-Roman script (from texts in Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, and other languages) represent real challenges for typesetters, designers, and printers, and are generally of interest only to specialists. Such passages should appear in English translation in the body of the essay. Selected passages of philological interest, or from unpublished or inaccessible sources, may be included in related endnotes, either in the original language or in a standard transliteration system, with English translation in parentheses (if not already translated in the text). If you are using a standard transliteration system, please state this in the first unnumbered note. For example: “Russian transliterations follow the Library of Congress system” or “I have used the Pinyin romanization system.”
We ask that authors limit these notes in number and length, reserving them for the most crucial passages. Titles of non-Roman sources cited in the endnotes should be given in the original non-Roman script or in a standard transliteration system, if you are using one, followed by an English translation in brackets. Isolated words or expressions in a non-Roman script should appear in transliteration (e.g., feng shui).
The author alone will be responsible for proofreading non-Roman script passages.
Images
Indicate on the picture list “S,” “M,” or “L” for each image, to guide the designer on the relative importance of each reproduction.
For guidelines on image formats, fair use in scholarly publishing, clearing rights and permissions, and image-rental contracts, please review "Clearing Permissions for Images" in the author acceptance packet.
Diagrams, Charts, and Line Images
These images cannot be incorporated into text; each must be treated as a figure. Original diagrams, photographs copied from a book, and very sharp enlarged photocopies may all be acceptable. (Remember that you may need written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce these, unless the work is in the public domain.) They should be larger than the desired size of the reproduction. Any markings, such as i.d. letters or numbers, labels, keys, or other text added to a diagram or map must be in type, not handwritten. If the image requires longer text labels, the author is responsible for supplying a final image (usually in digital format). CAA cannot create or insert such data into images.
Manuscript for Book Reviews
The following information must be provided at the beginning of the review, starting new lines as follows:
- Author’s/editor’s name
- Complete title of book (with a colon between the main title and the subtitle)
- Place of publication; publisher; date of publication; total number of pages (including all front matter and illustrations that do not carry page numbers); number of illustrations (black and white and color); price
The format is as follows:
CRAIG HARBISON
Jan van Eyck: The Play of Realism
London: Reaktion Books, 1991. 228 pp.; 42 color ills., 80 b/w.
£25.00
WU HUNG
The Wu Liang Shrine: The Ideology of Early Chinese Pictorial Art
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991. 435 pp.; 210 b/w ills.
$60.00; $24.95 paper
Expenses
It is the author’s responsibility to pay any costs incurred for the article, including photography and permissions expenses.
Publishing Process and Schedule
After the manuscript is submitted to the editor-in-chief, it is sent to anonymous peer reviewers. It may be returned for revisions once or more. Once a manuscript is accepted for publication, the editing and production process usually takes about seven months. Accepted articles are scheduled for publication at the discretion of the editor-in-chief.
After the manuscript is accepted, it is sent to the manuscript editor, who will edit it to conform to The Art Bulletin’s style. A photocopy of the edited manuscript is provided to the author for final corrections. The author will be asked to proofread the page proofs of the article.
