The online journal transfer is an academic publication platform in the area of provenance research and the history of collection as well as adjacent fields of investigation, like art market studies, reception history, cultural sociology, or legal history. Issues are published semi-annually and exclusively online in Diamond Open Access. Research articles and research reports, to be submitted in English or German, are subject to a double-blind peer-review. All submissions undergo an internal evaluation by the editors supported by the advisory board and receive professional copy-editing before publication. The journal is based at the Research Centre for Provenance Research, Art and Cultural Property Law at the University of Bonn and at the Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts. transfer receives funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG). Webhosting is provided by our partner institution Heidelberg University Library via arthistoricum.net.
Website: https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/transfer/index
Editors: Felicity Bodenstein, Ulrike Saß & Christoph Zuschlag
Managing Editor: Florian Schönfuß
Advisory Board: Arbeitskreis Provenienzforschung e.V., dbv-Kommission Provenienzforschung und Provenienzerschließung, Didier Houénoudé, Larissa Förster, Gilbert Lupfer, Antoinette Maget-Dominicé, Barbara K. Murovec, Gesa Vietzen
Open Call for Submissions
transfer is an interdisciplinary, cross-epoch and international journal. It primarily addresses a scholarly audience. Besides experienced researchers, transfer equally aims at early career researchers, including PhD students, offering broad impact and high accessibility for the publication of recent research. Abstaining from any author charges or other publication fees, transfer provides a Diamond Open Access platform assuring research quality as well as transparency, fostering research interconnection and the crossing of disciplinary and institutional boundaries. Authors are invited to submit papers on the following fields of interest:
– Provenance research on individual objects or object groups
– Collections, History of collection
– Translocation of art and cultural assets
– Art and cultural property law
– Culture of remembrance, Cultural identity, Collective memory
– Art trade, Art market studies
– Art policy, Sociology of art, Cultural sociology
– Restitution, Return, Repatriation
In conjunction with the articles in transfer, corresponding research data sets can be published via the Open Research Data platform heiData. For further information on this and regarding submissions, text categories, peer-review as well as our Style Sheet, please see the journal-website or contact us under redaktion.transfer@uni-bonn.de.
The submission deadline for Volume 5 (2026), No. 1 is 15th January 2026.
Contact Information
Dr. Florian Schönfuß
transfer – Zeitschrift für Provenienzforschung und Sammlungsgeschichte /
Journal for Provenance Research and the History of Collection
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
Forschungsstelle Provenienzforschung,
Kunst- und Kulturgutschutzrecht
Kunsthistorisches Institut
Rabinstraße 1
53111 Bonn (Germany)
florian.schoenfuss@uni-bonn.de
Contact Email
redaktion.transfer@uni-bonn.de
URL
https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/transfer/index
Publishing in the Archives Profession 