Social Sciences & Humanities
Arts and humanities research: funders, indexes, standards and societies
Arts and humanities research covers language and literature, history and archaeology, philosophy and religion, and the arts, history of art, performing arts and music, which is how the OECD Fields of Science and Technology classification groups them. Its research practice rests on a small set of shared infrastructures. Scholars search the MLA International Bibliography for language and literature, the Arts & Humanities Citation Index for citation tracking, and JSTOR and Project MUSE for journals, books and primary sources. Open access routes include the Open Library of Humanities, the Directory of Open Access Books and Humanities Commons.
Funding is concentrated in a few bodies. In the United States the National Endowment for the Humanities, set up in 1965, funds digital projects, preservation and access, public humanities and fellowships, and the American Council of Learned Societies, formed in 1919, runs peer-reviewed fellowship competitions across its 86 member societies. In the United Kingdom the Arts and Humanities Research Council sits within UKRI and shares some areas, such as area studies and gender studies, with the ESRC. The British Academy and the European Research Council, with its SH5 and SH6 panels, fund individual scholars, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has long supported humanities infrastructure.
Shared standards matter in practice. The Text Encoding Initiative defines the XML encoding of texts, IIIF governs image delivery from collections, and the Chicago Manual of Style and MLA conventions govern citation. Researchers and administrators should check council remit before applying, confirm licensing and rights for images and texts before depositing or publishing, and obtain informed consent and a deed of gift for oral history and interview material. Sub-field specifics are covered on the specialization hubs below.
Reviewed 5 November 2026 by CASRAI Editorial Board
- NEH grants(read 5 November 2026)
- ACLS member societies(read 5 November 2026)
- UKRI AHRC remit, programmes and priorities(read 5 November 2026)
- Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- British Academy (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- Creative Commons license (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- Directory of Open Access Books (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- European Research Council (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- Humanities Commons (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- International Image Interoperability Framework (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- JSTOR (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- MLA International Bibliography (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- Modern Language Association (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- Open Library of Humanities (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- Oral history (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- Project MUSE (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- Text Encoding Initiative (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- The Chicago Manual of Style (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
Field at a glance
Journals
- PMLA (Publications of the Modern Language Association of America)
- Journal of the MLA, described as one of the most prestigious journals in literary studies.Website ↗ · Our guide →
- Open Library of Humanities
- Nonprofit diamond open access publisher launched on 28 September 2015; authors pay no article processing charges.Website ↗ · Our guide →
Societies
- American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)
- Federation formed in 1919 with 86 member societies in the humanities and interpretive social sciences.Website ↗
- Modern Language Association (MLA)
- Founded in 1883, with over 20,000 members; publishes PMLA, the MLA Handbook and the MLA International Bibliography.Website ↗
- Oral History Association
- Founded by American oral historians in 1967; the field centres on informed consent and a deed of gift.Website ↗
Funders and programmes
- National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
- Independent federal agency established in 1965; grant categories include digital projects, preservation and access, and fellowships.Website ↗ · Our guide →
- Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
- UKRI council covering digital content, AI, cultural heritage and the creative economy; overlaps with ESRC on area studies and gender studies.Website ↗ · Our guide →
- European Research Council (ERC)
- Established in 2007; the SH5 panel covers texts and concepts and SH6 covers the study of the human past.Website ↗
- Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
- Founded in 1969; its higher education area covers humanities, libraries and scholarly communication.Website ↗ · Our guide →
- British Academy
- UK national academy for the humanities and social sciences; schemes include postdoctoral fellowships and overseas research institutes.Website ↗ · Our guide →
Archives, facilities and data
- JSTOR
- Digital library founded in 1994, with journals, books and primary sources mainly in the humanities and social sciences.Website ↗
- Project MUSE
- Nonprofit platform founded in 1993 hosting over 800 journals and 100,000 books in the humanities and social sciences.Website ↗ · Our guide →
- Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
- Free discovery service for peer-reviewed open access books, among OAPEN Foundation projects.Website ↗ · Our guide →
Standards and formats
- Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) Guidelines
- XML standard for encoding texts with over 580 elements, begun in 1987; ODD files define customizations such as EpiDoc.Website ↗
- IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework)
- Web APIs for delivering images and describing them; Image API 1.0 appeared in 2012 and Presentation API 1.0 in 2013.Website ↗
- The Chicago Manual of Style
- University of Chicago Press style guide, first published in 1906; the 18th edition appeared in September 2024.Website ↗ · Our guide →
- Creative Commons licenses
- Public licenses (BY, SA, NC, ND) and the CC0 waiver; version 4.0 dates from November 2013.Website ↗ · Our guide →
Preprints and indexes
- MLA International Bibliography
- Online database produced by the MLA, described as the standard bibliography in language and literature.Website ↗
- Arts & Humanities Citation Index
- Indexes more than 1,700 arts and humanities journals, with coverage from 1975.Website ↗
- Humanities Commons
- Open access, crossdisciplinary hub launched by the MLA in November 2016.Website ↗
25 pages across 8 topic areas
Research Methods & Statistics
- MusicXML: File Format, Structure and How to Open It
MusicXML file format explained: annotated structure, .musicxml vs .mxl, opening files in Python, and preservation guidance for researchers.…
- What Is Art History? Methods, Museums, Funding, and Image Rights
Art history is the scholarly study of art and material culture. This guide covers its methods, subfields, provenance research, museums and conservatio…
- What Is Classics? Classical Studies, Methods, Funding, and Careers
Classics, or classical studies, is the study of ancient Greece and Rome through their languages, literature, history, philosophy, and material remains…
- What Is Cultural Studies? Origins, Methods, and Funding
A neutral explainer on cultural studies: its origins at the Birmingham CCCS, core concepts, common methods, relation to sociology and the humanities,…
- What Is Literary Studies? Origins, Methods, and Funding
Literary studies is the scholarly study of literature: how texts are made, read, and valued. This guide covers its theories, methods, history, journal…
- What Is Museum Studies and Archival Science?
Museum studies and archival science are the fields that study how cultural and documentary collections are acquired, described, cared for, preserved,…
- What Is Religious Studies? Definition, Subfields, Methods, and Funding
A neutral, descriptive explanation of religious studies: how it differs from theology, its main subfields and methods, training paths, funders, and pr…
Grants Management & Research Funding
- American Musicological Society: Grants & Funding
Explore American Musicological Society funding, including AMS 50 dissertation fellowships, publication subventions, eligibility guidelines, and review…
- Andrew W. Mellon Foundation: Humanities and Arts Research Funding
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the largest private funder of arts, culture, and humanities research in the US. This guide covers its program areas…
- Association for Asian Studies: Grants & Programs
Explore Association for Asian Studies research grants, regional council awards, application requirements, and post-award reimbursement compliance stan…
- John Templeton Foundation: Research Funding Areas and Grant Process
An orientation to the John Templeton Foundation's six funding areas, its Intelligence Venture, the Online Funding Inquiry to Full Proposal process, an…
- NEA Grants for Arts Projects: Eligibility, Cost Share and Two-Part Application
Who can apply for NEA Grants for Arts Projects, the 1:1 cost share, award ranges, and the two-part Grants.gov and NEA Applicant Portal process.…
- NEH Summer Stipends and the Two-Nomination Cap
NEH Summer Stipends fund two months of humanities research through an institutional nomination process capped at two nominees per participating instit…
Research Tools & Software
- Loeb Classical Library Guide: Texts & Search
A research guide to the digital Loeb Classical Library: searching Greek and Latin texts, navigating canonical citations, access options, and classical…
- Margaret Herrick Library: Film Research Catalog Guide
Query the Margaret Herrick Library catalog, navigate holding records and umbrella files, compile research lists, and submit archival reading room requ…
- Perseus Digital Library: What It Holds and How to Use It
What the Perseus Digital Library holds, how its Hopper and Scaife interfaces differ, how to use its help tools, and how it compares with the TLG.…
- Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG): Coverage, Access and Citation
What the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae covers, which tiers are free, how institutional access works and how to cite it, from the TLG's own FAQ.…
Research Data Management
- DARIAH-EU: Europe's Digital Research Infrastructure for Arts and Humanities
DARIAH-EU is the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) supporting digital arts and humanities research. Learn its governance, member coun…
- HathiTrust Research Center: Non-Consumptive Text and Data Mining Access
HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC) provides non-consumptive computational access to the HathiTrust text corpus for text and data mining, distinct from…
- NEH Data Management Plan Requirements for Digital Humanities Grants
How NEH's Office of Digital Humanities defines Data Management Plan requirements for digital humanities grants, and how they differ from NSF and NIH D…
Scholarly Writing
- How to MLA Cite a Film or Movie
How to MLA cite films and documentaries: works-cited format, director-first or title-first examples, streaming, and in-text time stamps (MLA 9th ed.).…
- Humanities Article Structure vs. IMRaD (STEM) Format
A section-by-section comparison of how humanities articles are organized (argument-driven, thematic or chronological) versus the IMRaD Introduction-Me…
CRediT & Authorship
- Authorship Credit in Arts-Based and Practice-Based Creative Research
How authorship and contribution credit are attributed for exhibitions, performances, design works, and other practice-based creative research outputs…
Research Information & Identifiers
- CIDOC CRM (ISO 21127): The Conceptual Reference Model for Cultural Heritage Data
CIDOC CRM (ISO 21127) is the event-based ontology used to integrate cultural-heritage and digital-humanities data across museums, archives, and librar…
Scholarly Publishing
- UCLA Film & Television Archive: Research Guide
A researcher's guide to the UCLA Film & Television Archive: catalog search, ARSC viewing procedures, collection scope, and access categories.…
