Web resources are listed and annotated here . Art Index International, available at Montserrat in books and via the Internet. A crucial resource. A five-topic set of annotated design research bibliographies was issued in 1997 by the American Center for Design. Print magazine started in 1940, when the Inland Printer was still going strong, and a glance at its articles and at its inaugural editorial tells much about design's ambitions for higher professional station.
New annuals have only limited utility.
One should be looking at various enough publications, already and with discrimination, to moot the use of these selective self-portraits of a trade. Recent annuals are to be viewed, if at all, as already aged, already historical, already curiosities. The Art Index is probably the best single tool for identifying monographs.