edited by Dorothee Schaab-Hanke (OSTASIEN Verlag, Gossenberg), Achim Mittag (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen) and Sebastian Eicher (Università Ca' Foscari Venezia)
published by Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden

The Journal of Asian History [abbreviated: JAH], founded 1967, was formerly edited (vols. 1-45) by Denis Sinor (1916-2011, Indiana University, Bloomington), and from 2012-2014 (vols. 46-48) by Roderich Ptak (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) and Claudius C. Müller (Hong Kong). Usually this journal appears twice a year.

ISSN: 0021-910X

 

This journal has been approved as a peer reviewed  journal according to the criteria of European Reference Index for the Humanities ERIH in 2007. Besides, the journal is contained in the Science Citation Index (SCI), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and Arts and Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) lists imported from the Clarivate Analytics (previously Thomson Reuters) website.

 

The Journal’s profile

The geographical scope of the journal is as vast as Asia itself. Its historical scope encompasses all periods up to around 1900.

It is our hope that contributors will freely develop the “Through the Looking-Glass” aspect of history by implementing a variety of methodological approaches and utilizing a wide range of textual and non-textual sources. In particular, we welcome explorations of particular phenomena or events that provide insight into the dynamics of historical processes, elucidate historical change at turning points of history, and illuminate the conditions of all things that follow them.

In addition to studies on isolated phenomena which have played a crucial role in changing the course of history, we also welcome investigations that take the essential concepts, such as basic assumptions of everyday life or the dominant ideas of a certain age, as their starting point, and examine their “Sitz im Leben” (setting in life). These essential concepts have, in their respective eras, been taken for granted to such an extent that they were hardly mentioned in contemporary accounts. Thus, studies of this type should shed light on both the simple habits and the concepts commonplace to people of different social background living in the respective era.

Further, we hold those studies in high esteem, whose focus lies on the variety of meanings implied in the Chinese notion of Dao, “the Way”: travel and pilgrimage itineraries, routes of transport, encounters, exchanges, contact zones, and conceptions of spatial order. Of particular interest to us are the social networks of negotiations over time and space, such as the various ongoing internal dialogues within certain communities and the external influences exerted upon them.

Finally, we appreciate studies that focus on phenomena, institutions, and structural developments that in one way or the other can be considered to represent integral factors in those historical dynamics and processes that led up to the present age of globalization. This includes research on the gradual “hemispherization” of the Eurasian world through war, trade, travel, and cultural exchange, as well as on the formation of universal concepts as responses to fundamental crises of meaning and traumas.

The Journal seeks to provide a forum for debating the bigger questions regarding Asian history, which have as yet received little attention. Thus, contributors are strongly encouraged to write not only for the specialist, but also for readers with a broader base of education. Appreciating diversity, we explicitly invite scholars from all around the world to share his or her research results via our Journal.

Languages

The Journal publishes contributions in English.

Peer-Reviewing Procedure

Article manuscripts submitted to the editors will be sent to external peers.

On receiving a submitted article manuscript, the editors communicate among each other and discuss whether it seems to them suitable for publication in the Journal in terms of its overall quality, its temporal focus, methodological approach and basic formal requirements. Only then the submitted text will be be sent out for peer review. Peer-reviewers are particularly asked to provide comments about how to further improve the paper. In case of a distinctly disapproving opinion of one peer, the editors may consult one or two further reviewers in behalf of their opinion before taking a final decision.

Submitting Articles

All manuscripts should be submitted in electronic form both as a Word file and a PDF with tables, graphs and illustrations in black and white submitted separately in JPG or TIF format. Authors are expected to clear copyright permissions for all illustrations, graphs, etc.

The ideal length of a paper is 20–30 pages (c. 8,000–14,000 words). Papers should include a separate list of cited works at the end. Please send us an abstract and a brief academic CV including your academic affiliation and postal address accompanying your submission. For further details, please refer to the journal’s style sheet [PDF / MS Word].

On receipt of the finalized manuscript, it will be subjected to careful editing, both in terms of content and language. All texts will be proofread by an American native speaker.

Submitting Reviews

Besides actively recruiting reviewers at our end, we encourage other scholars to contribute reviews as well. Please contact the editors if you wish to submit a book review, informing us of your academic qualifications, if these are not yet known to the editors. Provided the proposed book meets the journal’s profile, we will procure a review copy of it. Please make sure to provide us with a mailing address. Reviews should not surpass a length of c. 1,500 words. For further details, please refer to the journal’s style sheet [PDF / MS Word].

Publishers who wish to have a book reviewed are invited to send them to Achim Mittag at the address given below. We cannot guarantee that the books submitted will be reviewed in our Journal, but at the very least, their titles will be included in a “List of Received Books”. Having been a characteristic feature of the Journal for long, this list will be restored as a regular item of each issue.