Journal profile · Social Sciences-Cultural Studies
Culture Unbound
ISSN 2000-1525 · Linkoping University Electronic Press · Sweden
Culture Unbound: diamond open access (no APC); no APC; review about 20 weeks (community reports); 10 articles in 2025; indexed in Scopus; the journal's website says submissions are paused or closed.
The journal's website says submissions are paused or closed: This journal is not accepting submissions at this time. Source ↗Publisher website ·
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Culture Unbound is published by Linkoping University Electronic Press. By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Cultural Identity and Heritage, Cultural Industries and Urban Development and Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration, together about 20% of its articles. Its main subfields are Urban Studies. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Culture Unbound is an independent, academic-led, diamond open-access peer-reviewed journal that publishes emergent perspectives on media, society and digital culture. We seek to publish rigorous, accessible research, creating space for innovative and experimental ways of understanding the systems, stories, images, technologies, and institutions that shape contemporary life. We hope that the journal can be a meeting place across media and internet studies, STS, and many other vibrant “studies” that are developing research, methods, and scholarly conversations on these issues. We are also thinking about the journal as a meaningful publishing environment. We do not charge authors any processing or publication fees. At a time when academic publishing models are becoming increasingly unsustainable, and scholarly work is increasingly treated as fodder for AI systems, we want to foster something more nurturing and relational: a space for genuine intellectual exchange, with fewer impersonal systems and automated layers separating authors, reviewers, and editors.We remain deeply committed to peer review as a cornerstone of academic practice. Sustaining it, however, also requires acknowledging the labour it involves. This means publishing at a deliberate and manageable pace, rather than simply maximizing outputs. We look forward to sharing more about these ambitions as the relaunch develops. For now, we only accept submissions as part of special issues, as well as pitches and proposals for special issues that generatively take the notion of "unbound" as part of their approach, writing, format, or style and fit within the new focus of the journal. For inquiries and special issue suggestions, please contact the lead editor. Note that at present we do not accept submissions of standalone articles. Who owns the journal? Culture Unbound is owned by the Department of Culture and Society at Linköping University, and published by Linköping University Electronic Press. The journal is financially supported by Linköping University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, LiU Humanities, and the Swedish Research Council. History The journal was launched in 2009 with the aim to be an a accessible home for cutting-edge cultural research. Since its inception it has had an interest in promoting innovative and experimental academic publishing methods and genres. Since 2026 the journal has a new editorial team and a more specific focus on media, society and digital culture. Peer Review Proces
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Social Sciences-Cultural Studies
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named Sweden 5, Norway 3, Finland 2, Denmark 1 (11 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Cultural Identity and HeritageArts and Humanities7.2%
- Cultural Industries and Urban DevelopmentSocial Sciences6.7%
- Memory, Trauma, and CommemorationPsychology6.1%
- Gender and Feminist StudiesSocial Sciences5.4%
- Spatial and Cultural StudiesSocial Sciences5%
- Urban Planning and GovernanceSocial Sciences4.8%
- Urban and sociocultural dynamicsSocial Sciences4.8%
- Anthropological Studies and InsightsSocial Sciences4.3%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CiteScore quartiles (Scopus, June 2026 release)
| Subject | Quartile | Rank | Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cultural Studies | Q2 | 520/1434 | 63rd |
| Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) | Q2 | 300/692 | 56th |
| Anthropology | Q3 | 284/536 | 47th |
Scopus ranks journals by CiteScore within each subject: the 75th percentile and above is Q1, then a quartile every 25 points. A different system from the CAS zones.LetPub
Database indexing
ScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 0.8LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.12LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.45LetPub ·
- h-index
- 30OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 129OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 0.45OpenAlex ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 0%LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 590 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 25 | 25 | 231 |
| 2025 | 10 | 10 | 356 |
| 2024 | 18 | 18 | 421 |
| 2023 | 10 | 10 | 437 |
| 2022 | 32 | 32 | 414 |
| 2021 | 25 | 25 | 469 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 20 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 20 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Double anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Diamond open access (no APC)DOAJ
Every article is open access and authors pay no article processing charge.
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | No APC | No | CC BY | |
| LetPub | No APC | No | — | |
| Publisher website | No APC | — | — |
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
Article types accepted1
- special issue articlesCulture Unbound welcomes currently only contributions in the form of special issues that fit within its new scope on media, society and digital culture.Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteConflicts of interest, License & copyright, Peer review
- Conflicts of interest
Copyright rests with authors Model summary
Copyright for all manuscripts rests with the author(s).
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Copyright Notice
CC BY license for new articles since 2021 Model summary
Copyright for all manuscripts rests with the author(s). The editors reserve the right to edit manuscripts. Contributors are responsible for acquiring all permissions from the copyright owners for the use of quotations, illustrations, tables, etc. Each author must, before final publication fill, in a publishing agreement provided by LiU E-Press. Since 2021 Culture Unbound uses a Creative Commons: A…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review
Double-blind peer review for special issue articles Model summary
All articles part of special issues undergo a double-blind peer review process.
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- Linkoping University Electronic Press
- Country or region
- Sweden
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2000-1525
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 18, Issue 2 (2026)
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Culture Unbound
How long does peer review take at Culture Unbound?
Authors report an average review time of about 20 weeks. Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
Where are the editorial board members of Culture Unbound based?
Of the 11 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are Sweden (5), Norway (3) and Finland (2). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Culture Unbound?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Culture Unbound is indexed in Scopus and DOAJ.
Is Culture Unbound open access, and what is the APC?
Culture Unbound is a diamond open-access journal (no APC). It charges no article processing charge.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, DOAJ, Publisher website; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-26). Last updated: .