Journal profile
Refract
ISSN 2640-9429 · eScholarship Publishing, University of California · United States
Refract: fully open access; no APC; review about 36 weeks (community reports); 0 articles in 2025.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Refract is published by eScholarship Publishing, University of California. By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Visual Culture and Art Theory, Art, Politics, and Modernism and Photographic and Visual Arts, together about 38% of its articles. Its main subfields are Visual Arts and Performing Arts. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Refract is an online journal founded and operated by graduate students in 2016 and dedicated to conversations about visual culture, non-canonical methodologies, and divergent histories. We publish early-career and established scholars, students, and artists in the genres of the academic essay, critical review, creative work, and experimental artist statement/essay. We are interested in work that employs visuality as a lens to engage geographies and histories that diverge from U.S. political and academic empire, and uses the tools and methods of visual studies and artistic practice in pursuit of equity and justice. We encourage submissions from multiple academic fields, expansive considerations of artistic practice/s, and multiple ways of knowing. We seek pieces that theorize, dream, and imagine as intervention, as well as pieces that challenge the author's, artist's, and editorial board’s intellectual commitments as they reflect on the visual as a site of encounter, entanglement, and social change.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Visual Culture and Art TheoryArts and Humanities16.9%
- Art, Politics, and ModernismArts and Humanities11.7%
- Photographic and Visual ArtsArts and Humanities9.4%
- Memory, Trauma, and CommemorationPsychology6.6%
- Photography and Visual CultureArts and Humanities6.1%
- Publishing and Scholarly CommunicationArts and Humanities5.6%
- Artistic and Creative ResearchArts and Humanities5.2%
- Memory, violence, and historyPsychology3.8%
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
Indexed in: no record yet.
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
- h-index
- 3OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 1OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 0OpenAlex ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 0%LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 115 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 2025 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 2024 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 2023 | 11 | 11 | 8 |
| 2022 | 19 | 19 | 5 |
| 2021 | 24 | 24 | 8 |
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 36 weeksLetPub ·
- Peer review
- Anonymous peer reviewLetPub
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
Fully open accessOpenAlex
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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)
Article types accepted4, with length limits
- book reviewroject statement). Exhibition, film, or book reviews (700-1,000 words). In your proposal, please include your object of review, ymain text ≤ 1,000 words
- creative/artistic submissionsCreative/artistic submissions, including visual art, media, sound/audio, photography, creative writing, and other formats that complement a digital publication …Length not stated
- exhibition, film, or book reviewsExhibition, film, or book reviews (700-1,000 words).Length not stated
- written/scholarly submissionsWritten/scholarly submissions (3,000-7,000 words) can take the form of single- or co-authored essays, artistic-scholarly projects, interviews, and roundtables f…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteLicense & copyright, Open access, Peer review
- License & copyright Images, Copyright, and the Future of Digital Publishing in the Arts
Fortney, Katie Publishing in many arts disciplines is enriched by, and may rely on, the use of images. Authors have long found the hurdles and the fees for using these images to be daunting, and the move to digital publishing can make this problem worse. Open-access publishing can prove even more challenging. If scholarship in art history, art criticism, visual studies and other fields is going to…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Peer Review Models, Publication Types, Open Access, and the Future
Open access publication Model summary
Story, Daniel; Stuit, Martha First off, we acknowledge that digital publishing can take many forms, from standard article or book formats that are enhanced by digital visualizations or interactivity to a variety of less text-centered formats. Likewise, digital projects may enter the world by means of self-publishing (Daniel’s main area of expertise) or through more established academic and commerc…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer Review Models, Publication Types, Open Access, and the Future
Story, Daniel; Stuit, Martha First off, we acknowledge that digital publishing can take many forms, from standard article or book formats that are enhanced by digital visualizations or interactivity to a variety of less text-centered formats. Likewise, digital projects may enter the world by means of self-publishing (Daniel’s main area of expertise) or through more established academic and commerc…
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
- eScholarship Publishing, University of California
- Country or region
- United States
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2640-9429
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Refract
How long does peer review take at Refract?
Authors report an average review time of about 36 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.
Is Refract open access, and what is the APC?
Refract is a fully open-access journal. It charges no article processing charge.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, 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: .