Journal profile · Social Sciences-Political Science and International Relations
Journal of Current Chinese Affairs
ISSN 1868-4874 · Institute of Asian Studies at the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies · United Kingdom
Journal of Current Chinese Affairs: impact factor 2.6 (journal website); diamond open access (no APC); no APC; review about 250 days (submission to acceptance, publisher); acceptance rate 22.9% (journal website); 21 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Journal of Current Chinese Affairs is published by Institute of Asian Studies at the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies. By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance, Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics and Chinese history and philosophy, together about 43.9% of its articles. Its main subfields are Sociology and Political Science. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Research area (LetPub): Social Sciences-Political Science and International Relations
Editorial board by country: 4 in mainland China (about 11%); most named Germany 8, United Kingdom 6, Australia 5, Mainland China 4, United States 4 (36 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- China's Socioeconomic Reforms and GovernanceSocial Sciences21.7%
- Hong Kong and Taiwan PoliticsSocial Sciences13.3%
- Chinese history and philosophySocial Sciences8.9%
- International Development and AidSocial Sciences7.7%
- International Relations and Foreign PolicySocial Sciences5.3%
- China's Ethnic Minorities and RelationsSocial Sciences4.7%
- Migration, Ethnicity, and EconomySocial Sciences3.9%
- China's Global Influence and MigrationSocial Sciences3.8%
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.
Database indexing
ESCIScopusDOAJLetPub
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
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 2.6Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 5.4LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.69LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.7LetPub ·
- h-index
- 40OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 209OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 1.56OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 7.7%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 31LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 452 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 21 | 21 | 5 |
| 2025 | 21 | 21 | 31 |
| 2024 | 26 | 26 | 70 |
| 2023 | 24 | 24 | 172 |
| 2022 | 24 | 24 | 279 |
| 2021 | 27 | 27 | 490 |
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
Publisher-reported review time from the journal's website
250 dayssubmission to acceptance · community reports about 7 weeks
The publisher's own definition applies; dates from this journal's articles in the last 24 months are not available yet, so the publisher's figure is used.
Figures by source
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 7 weeksLetPub ·
- Acceptance rate (publisher)
- 22.9%Publisher website ·
- Submission to first decision
- 6 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to acceptance
- 250 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 28 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 7 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, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-ND | |
| OpenAlex | USD 0 | — | — | |
| LetPub | No APC | No | — | |
| Publisher website | Yes, amount not published | — | — |
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 prepare9 items from the author guidelines
- Keywords
- ≥ 3
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 10,000 words
- Reference style
- Harvard
- Templates
- LaTeX and Word
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
- Highlights
- Required
- Graphical abstract
- Optional
- Cover letter
- Required
Article types accepted5, with length limits
- analysesThe Journal of Current Chinese Affairs accepts Research Articles, Analyses and Review Articles.Length not stated
- research articleThe Journal of Current Chinese Affairs accepts Research Articles, Analyses and Review Articles. Research articles should not exceed 10,000 words (including abst…main text ≤ 10,000 words
- research articlesThe Journal of Current Chinese Affairs accepts Research Articles, Analyses and Review Articles.Length not stated
- review articleThe Journal of Current Chinese Affairs accepts Research Articles, Analyses and Review Articles. Research articles should not exceed 10,000 words (including abst…main text ≤ 10,000 words
- review articlesThe Journal of Current Chinese Affairs accepts Research Articles, Analyses and Review Articles.Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints
- Authorship Authorship
Please view our authorship policies, which includes information on criteria for authorship, who should be the corresponding author and more. Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability
Research data sharing policy: authors encouraged to share data in public repositories, include data availability statement, cite data. Model summary
The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages. Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to: Share your research data in a relevant public data repository Include a data ava…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Ethical considerations
Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Model summary
Please include your ethics approval statements under this heading, even if you have already included ethics approval information in your methods section. If ethical approval was not required, you need to explicitly state this. All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board approved th…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Publishing fees and open access
The Journal of Current Chinese Affairs is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. All accepted articles are made freely available online immediately upon publication, are published under a Creative Commons license, and hosted online in perpetuity. The standard license for the journal is Creative Commons (CC BY), and it is reccomended this is the licence which is selected. This allows others to re-u…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Peer review identity transparency: double anonymized. Model summary
The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal: Identity transparency:Double-anonymized Reviewer interacts with: Editor Review information published: None Your manuscript will undergo an initial evaluation. If it does not conform to the requirements laid out in these guidelines, it will be returned to you for amendments prior to peer review. Manuscripts may be desk reject…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism Plagiarism
The journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Please read Sage's complete policy on plagiarism and the actions we may take.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints
Preprint policy: journal will consider submissions posted on preprint servers; enter preprint DOI at submission; do not post updated versions during peer review. Model summary
The journal will consider submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers. Please enter the preprint DOI in the designated field when submitting your manuscript. We advise that you inform the Journal Editorial office about your posted preprint at submission. Note that you should not post an updated version of your manuscript on a preprint server while it is being peer reviewed…
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
- Institute of Asian Studies at the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies
- Country or region
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 1868-4874
- Print ISSN
- 1868-1026
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗OpenAlex
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- 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 Journal of Current Chinese Affairs
What is the impact factor of Journal of Current Chinese Affairs?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 2.6; this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 5.4, h-index 40.
How long does peer review take at Journal of Current Chinese Affairs?
The publisher reports about 250 days (submission to acceptance); authors report an average review time of about 7 weeks; the journal's website gives an acceptance rate of 22.9%. 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 Journal of Current Chinese Affairs?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Keywords: ≥ 3; Manuscript length: ≤ 10,000 words; Reference style: Harvard; Templates: LaTeX and Word; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required; Suggested reviewers: Optional; Highlights: Required; Graphical abstract: Optional; Cover letter: Required. 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 Journal of Current Chinese Affairs based?
Of the 36 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 4 (about 11%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are Germany (8), United Kingdom (6) and Australia (5). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Journal of Current Chinese Affairs?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Journal of Current Chinese Affairs is indexed in ESCI, Scopus and DOAJ.
Is Journal of Current Chinese Affairs open access, and what is the APC?
Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 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, Publisher website, OpenAlex, DOAJ; 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 2026-08-25). Last updated: .