Journal profile
Lateral
ISSN 2469-4053 · Cultural Studies Association · United States
Lateral: diamond open access (no APC); no APC; review about 26 weeks (community reports); 36 articles in 2025.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Lateral is published by Cultural Studies Association. By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Art, Politics, and Modernism, Gender and Feminist Studies and Disability Rights and Representation, together about 19.7% of its articles. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Lateral accepts submissions on any topic related to the field or practice of cultural studies within historical and/or contemporary contexts. Strong submissions situate their considerations of cultural practices, critical theories, and/or pedagogies within established and emerging conversations on racism, capitalism, sexuality, gender, ability, colonialism, and their many intersections. In addition to finished academic papers, the editors also welcome contributions that engage or have the potential to engage the multimedia and interactive aspects of this open-access, web-based platform. For additional context, see the access and inclusion section of our publication ethics statement.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Art, Politics, and ModernismArts and Humanities6.8%
- Gender and Feminist StudiesSocial Sciences6.7%
- Disability Rights and RepresentationSocial Sciences6.2%
- Political Economy and MarxismSocial Sciences6.2%
- Posthumanist Ethics and ActivismSocial Sciences5.7%
- Race, History, and American SocietySocial Sciences5.7%
- Feminist Theory and Gender StudiesSocial Sciences5.1%
- Ecocriticism and Environmental LiteratureArts and Humanities4.1%
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
DOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
Google Scholar, EBSCO, CrossrefPublisher 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
- h-index
- 20OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 36OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 0.21OpenAlex ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 0%LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 521 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 17 | 17 | 356 |
| 2025 | 36 | 36 | 431 |
| 2024 | 44 | 44 | 430 |
| 2023 | 43 | 43 | 393 |
| 2022 | 46 | 46 | 236 |
| 2021 | 61 | 61 | 232 |
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 26 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 38 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-NC | |
| 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)
Policy excerpts from the journal's websitePublication ethics, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review
- Publication ethics Publication Ethics Statement
Lateral follows the COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics Code of Conduct for Journal Editors. As a publication of the Cultural Studies Association, Lateral is also governed by the CSA’s Code of Conduct. Decisions regarding the journal rest with its editors, and may be appealed by procedures outlined at the end of this statement. In addition, recognizing that research and publication are as imbric…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Intellectual Property and Copyright Issues
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC) License, unless otherwise noted Model summary
In cases of suspected plagiarism, fabrication, and other misconduct, the editors follow COPE’s guidelines for dealing with allegations. All contributors to articles published in Lateral should be credited appropriately. Accepted authors are provided with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations for determining authorship before production and publication of an…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open Access Policy
Open access journal Model summary
In compliance with BOAI, we allow “any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose” without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. All content published in Lateral is distributed under a Creative Commons license specified on …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer Review Process
Lateral strives to create a positive environment for all who engage with the journal as a means of developing and growing the community of scholars in cultural studies. Regardless of their review decision, reviewers have a responsibility to make their decisions on the basis of the content of the submission, and to provide constructive, grounded feedback in an ethical way to all authors. We encoura…
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
- Cultural Studies Association
- Country or region
- United States
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2469-4053
- 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 Lateral
How long does peer review take at Lateral?
Authors report an average review time of about 26 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.
Which databases index Lateral?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Lateral is indexed in DOAJ.
Is Lateral open access, and what is the APC?
Lateral 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: .