Asian Survey

• 1. Introduction

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  Asian Survey has been tracking the politics, societies, and shifting fortunes of Asia since before most of its current readers were born. Published by the University of California Press on behalf of the Institute of East Asian Studies at Berkeley, this bimonthly academic journal has outlasted empires, revolutions, and the redrawing of entire maps. What began as a modest newsletter in 1932 has transformed, through two name changes and nearly a century of scholarship, into one of the field's recognized venues for contemporary Asian affairs. The questions it raised at its founding, about who holds power in Asia and how those societies change, remain the questions it pursues today.

• 2. From Memorandum to Survey

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  In 1932, the journal launched under the name Memorandum, published by the Institute of Pacific Relations, American Council. That title reflected its origins as a working document rather than a polished scholarly venue. By 1935, it had grown into something more substantial, adopting the name Far Eastern Survey. That shift in title tracked a shift in ambition: from internal memo to public-facing academic review. The final renaming came in 1961, when Far Eastern Survey became Asian Survey, a title that acknowledged how the field itself had expanded beyond the traditional "Far East" framing to encompass the full breadth of the continent.

• 3. How the Journal Works

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  Asian Survey uses double-blind peer review, meaning neither authors nor reviewers know each other's identities during evaluation. This process places the journal within the mainstream of rigorous academic publishing, where work is judged on its merits rather than its author's reputation. The editor-in-chief is Uk Heo of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Under this structure, the journal appears six times a year, giving scholars a regular rhythm for publishing research on contemporary Asian affairs rather than waiting for annual volumes.

• 4. Reach and Recognition

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  According to the Journal Citation Reports, Asian Survey recorded an impact factor of 1.3 in 2023, a measure of how often its articles are cited by other researchers. Abstracting services spread its reach further: the journal is indexed in GEOBASE, Scopus, the MLA Modern Language Association Database, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts, and Historical Abstracts. That last database is notable given the journal's own long history, placing it in the company of sources that document the past rather than only the present.