We publish peer-reviewed scholarship on the histories of British art and architecture from the medieval period to the present day. Our remit is broadly defined and adapts as the interests of those working in our field change. It encompasses art made in Britain or by British artists, but is not solely limited to art made, or artists from, within the geographical boundaries of the British Isles. Rather we understand the field of British art studies to encompass a broad range of subjects and topics related to the artistic and cultural histories of Britain, past and present.
We are striving to broaden the scope of research on British art, extending it to subjects, materials and debates that have been underrepresented not only within British art studies, but also within art history as a whole.
As an educational charity, we were founded to support publications that would not be financially viable for commercial, academic or gallery presses. We generously subsidise our publications through funding that Paul Mellon gifted to Yale University to establish the Paul Mellon Centre.
What we publish
We publish high quality illustrated books, and we are in the process of making backlist titles available on the Yale Art & Architecture e-Portal.
Our publishing focus is on scholarly monographs and catalogues raisonnés.
On a case-by-case basis we may also publish edited collections of essays and facsimiles.
We do not publish:
- trade books with the primary purpose of commercial success
- artists’ books or primarily image-based books – the written argument about visual material is at the core of our publications
- exhibition catalogues
- textbooks or introductory publications
- biographies that are not framed by an art-historical argument
- unconverted PhDs
Submissions
Prospective authors should:
- submit a full draft manuscript in digital form, including a title page and table of contents
- indicate the word count (including all endmatter)
- indicate the proposed number of images
- provide a caption list, even if only in basic form
- provide a set of reference images, if available, as a single pdf
We also accept book proposals, if you are at an earlier stage of the writing process. Please include a full summary of the project (including chapter synopses), a table of contents and a sample chapter. Be aware, however, that a proposal will only allow us to give a very general indication of whether the project might be suitable for us when complete.
All submissions for book projects should be directed to Emily Lees at elees@paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk.
Acquisition process
Manuscripts are first reviewed by an in-house editorial team to judge their potential suitability for the PMC list. If a submission proceeds beyond this first stage, it will then undergo a rigorous peer-review process conducted, in the first instance, by anonymous subject-specialist reviewers. The reports provided by those reviewers are shared with the author, who is then expected to produce a written response. The manuscript, reports and author response are then presented for consideration by our publications committee, which forms the second stage of the review process. The committee makes all final decisions on which projects the PMC will publish.
British Art Studies is an open access journal that publishes new peer-reviewed scholarship on all aspects of British art, architecture, and visual culture, from the medieval period to the present day, in their most diverse and international contexts.
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. Visit the journal website for more information and guidelines: https://www.britishartstudies.ac.uk/about/submissions.