Journal profile · Social Sciences-Cultural Studies
IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies
ISSN 2187-4905 · The International Academic Forum · Japan
IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies: diamond open access (no APC); no APC; review about 10 weeks (community reports); 19 articles in 2025; indexed in Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies is published by The International Academic Forum. By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Cinema History and Criticism, Cinema and Media Studies and Cultural Studies and Colonialism, together about 23.9% of its articles. Its main subfields are Visual Arts and Performing Arts. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
The IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies solicits scholarship in the broad areas of culture, social development, the arts, digital communities, philosophy and similar. While much of the journal's focus rests on Asia, it encourages contributions from all across the globe, thereby establishing links between intercultural and transcultural phenomena and analysing them. Asia is a continent constantly evolving within a restive world and it is the aim of this journal to provide challenging and incisive commentary to accompany this process. We envisage the IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies to be an open space for developing topics, threads and nodes of cultural understanding. The journal recognises that cultural studies is necessarily hybrid in nature and that even the establishment of common research fields (itself a highly contested exercise) will do little to discipline it. This, however, does not relieve cultural studies of the necessary reflection upon its own histories and present status quo. It is hoped that some of these discussions will take place in the virtual pages of this journal and that those theoretical interventions stimulate and interact with further research. As cultures are becoming increasingly mediated, ample space will be provided for those interventions highlighting the relationship between (media) technology and culture. The journal Editor welcomes submissions related to cultural studies from academics, practitioners and professionals within the field. Please note that papers already submitted to or published as Conference Proceedings (IAFOR or otherwise) are not accepted for publication in any of IAFOR’s journals. The articles are submitted through the submission portal and must conform to the journal Author guidelines. Multiple submissions are not permitted. All papers are reviewed equally according to double-blind peer review processes. Fees There are no fees of any kind for the IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Social Sciences-Cultural Studies
Editor-in-chief Holger BrielPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 2 in mainland China (about 9%); most named United States 3, United Kingdom 3, Japan 3, Australia 3, Mainland China 2 (22 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Cinema History and CriticismArts and Humanities10.3%
- Cinema and Media StudiesEconomics, Econometrics and Finance7.1%
- Cultural Studies and ColonialismArts and Humanities6.5%
- Cultural Identity and RepresentationArts and Humanities5.2%
- Cultural Identity and HeritageArts and Humanities4.5%
- Music History and CultureArts and Humanities3.9%
- Folklore, Mythology, and Literature StudiesArts and Humanities3.9%
- Visual Culture and Art TheoryArts and Humanities3.9%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Arts and Humanities | Q3 | 103/175 | 41st |
| Cultural Studies | Q3 | 896/1434 | 37th |
| Anthropology | Q4 | 404/536 | 24th |
| Social Sciences (miscellaneous) | Q4 | 626/744 | 15th |
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
Indexing the journal's website claims
Dimensions, Scilit, MIAR, TROVE, SHERPA/RoMEO, Mir@bel, LENS.ORG, Google ScholarPublisher website
As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.
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
- 0.4LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.12LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.54LetPub ·
- h-index
- 6OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 3OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 0.25OpenAlex ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 0%LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 167 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 15 | 15 | 34 |
| 2025 | 19 | 19 | 34 |
| 2024 | 19 | 19 | 26 |
| 2023 | 18 | 18 | 18 |
| 2022 | 13 | 13 | 18 |
| 2021 | 14 | 14 | 14 |
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 10 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 10 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 | Publisher's own license | |
| LetPub | No APC | No | — |
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)
What to prepare3 items from the author guidelines
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 7,500 words
- Reference style
- APA
- Templates
- Word
Article types accepted1
- research articlesGenerally, typical submissions are about 7,500 words in length, NOT including references/footnotes; abstract 250 words maximum, 3-6 keywords.Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteLicense & copyright, Peer review, Plagiarism
- License & copyright Copyright Policy
Exclusive License Agreement with IAFOR; authors retain copyright but license exclusive rights to IAFOR. Model summary
By publishing their work with IAFOR, authors enter into an exclusive License Agreement, where they have copyright but license exclusive rights in their article to IAFOR as the publisher. Please see this page for full details. https://iafor.org/iafor-publications-and-license-agreement/ License and Copyright Statement Abstracts, research papers, and video footage are published under an IAFOR user li…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Editorial & Peer Review Process
The IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies practices double-blind peer review. The review process is as follows: Submissions check, (the Publications Office makes sure that all information needed for processing the submission further was provided; that the submission complies with the Author Guidelines; and that the content is relevant to the journal); Plagiarism screening with iThenticate software; Ar…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism Plagiarism Screening
All submitted articles are screened using iThenticate plagiarism checking software.
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
- The International Academic Forum
- Country or region
- Japan
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2187-4905
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies
How long does peer review take at IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies?
Authors report an average review time of about 10 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.
What are the manuscript requirements of IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Manuscript length: ≤ 7,500 words; Reference style: APA; Templates: Word. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Where are the editorial board members of IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies based?
Of the 22 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 2 (about 9%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (3), United Kingdom (3) and Japan (3). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies is indexed in Scopus and DOAJ.
Is IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies open access, and what is the APC?
IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies 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: .