I think there are several academic publications that exploit the data visualization from different perspectives. In my case, I approach the field of communication, which is still little explored.
Data visualization is all about understanding ratios and relationships among numbers. Not about understanding individual numbers, but about understanding the
Principles of Data Visualization - What We See in a Visual. These patterns are an intrinsic part of our vision, and are frequently used when we analyze and describe a ...
Besides the resources mentioned in previous answers, you could take a look to these academic journals addressing information visualization and visual analytics topics at different levels (this is a forcedly uncomplete list, but it could be a starting point):
This is very useful information for me also. My research area is the information design of metro maps, and I can see in this list several journals and conferences that are pertinent.