CityU-Organised Academic Journals and CityU Press

A law review edited by current students yet indexed in Scopus and Westlaw; a university press that has sunk its teeth into the hard-nut discipline of China studies — these are the two concrete scorecards CityU has delivered in academic publishing, a niche arena that is rarely crowded. This article documents the academic journals organised or hosted by the City University of Hong Kong (and its colleges/departments), as well as the establishment, governance, and publishing trajectory of the City University of Hong Kong Press (CityU Press).

It is necessary to distinguish between “organised by” and “scholarly participation”: many CityU academics serve as editorial board members, guest editors, or editors-in-chief of international journals, but those journals are typically published by international houses (e.g. SAGE, Elsevier, Springer) and are not organised by CityU. Where this article can verify that a journal is genuinely “organised/hosted by CityU,” details are recorded; where it is merely a case of “scholarly participation,” this is noted separately; where verification is impossible, entries are marked “Unverified.” The publisher’s full catalogue is vast and updated annually; this article records only titles verifiable through official pages or public catalogues. Any assertion of “flagship” or “best-selling” status that cannot be verified is marked “Unverified,” and this article does not assign a rank-based characterisation to any publisher.

# 1. City University of Hong Kong Law Review

CityU’s most representative academic journal that can be definitively verified as “organised by CityU” is the City University of Hong Kong Law Review (CityU LR), published by the School of Law.

# 1.1 Basic Information

# 1.2 Editorial and Operational Model

CityU LR adopts a “student-edited under faculty supervision” model: roughly 20 editors are selected each year from among the School of Law’s LLB and JD students^※, guided by a faculty editor and an International Board of Advisors. This “law review” model, derived from the traditions of British and American law schools, serves both as a scholarly publishing platform and as a component of legal training.

# 1.3 Content and Scope

The journal publishes articles, notes, legal updates, and book reviews, with a focus on contemporary legal issues in Hong Kong, mainland China, Macau, and the wider Asia-Pacific region. Submissions undergo double-blind peer review, with emphasis placed on original perspectives and rigorous research on cutting-edge legal questions in the region. Publication frequency is slightly inconsistent across sources (the official introduction states “published annually,” while some records indicate “biannual”) — the actual issue schedule in any given year should be trusted as set by the School of Law.

# 1.4 International Journals with Deep Scholarly Involvement (Not Organised by CityU)

CityU scholars participate widely in the international journal ecosystem, but the following journals are not organised by CityU. Their associations with CityU academics are recorded here merely to avoid confusion with “CityU-organised” publications:

• Media and communication: Academics from the Department of Media and Communication serve in editorial or guest-editorial roles for several SAGE communication journals (e.g. Global Media and China). These journals are published by international houses like SAGE, and CityU scholars serve on their boards as individuals, not as institutional organisers.
• In other fields of CityU strength — such as materials science, engineering, energy and environment — numerous faculty members serve on the editorial boards of top international journals. Such service is personal academic contribution, not institutional organisation, and will not be enumerated here.

Distinguishing principle: the “organiser” status depends on whether the publisher listed on the journal’s cover or copyright page is CityU or one of its units; an individual scholar’s editorial role does not change the journal’s institutional affiliation.

# 1.5 Other Possible CityU Publications

Over the years, CityU’s various colleges and research centres may have produced departmental newsletters, working papers, annual-report-style academic collections, and the like. However, such publications tend to be internal or irregular, lack stable public ISSNs or third-party indexing records, and it is difficult to verify their current operational status one by one. CityU runs an institutional repository, CityU Scholars (scholars.cityu.edu.hk), which aggregates the research output of its academics, but this is a repository platform, not a “journal.” CityU does not have a long-running, public-facing, flagship comprehensive humanities journal analogous to CUHK’s Twenty-First Century bimonthly — in this respect, no corresponding publication is found.

# 2. City University of Hong Kong Press (CityU Press)

# 2.1 Establishment and Positioning

City University of Hong Kong Press was founded in 1996^※ and serves as the publishing arm of the university. Its stated official mission is: “by way of publishing high-quality titles, to promote scholarship; enhance knowledge transfer; and disseminate knowledge and creative works to society at large.”

The Press is governed under the supervision of the University Press Committee^※. This arrangement is similar to that of other Hong Kong university presses — publishing direction is overseen by an academic committee to safeguard the Press’s scholarly neutrality and the quality of its output, rather than being a purely commercial operation.

# 2.2 Publishing Focus and Subject Range

According to its official introduction, CityU Press primarily publishes three categories of works^※:academic works, professional books, and books of general interest and social concern aimed at the wider community. Its subject coverage is broad, spanning business, history, cultural studies, education, law, political science, social sciences, science and engineering^※, among others; its core strengths lie in China studies, Hong Kong studies, Asian studies, and politics and public policy. This positioning differs from some peers that lean more heavily towards pure scholarly monographs: CityU Press lists “professional books” and “books of general interest and social concern” as co-equal main lines, reflecting an intent to serve both academic and general readerships.

# 2.3 Key Book Series

Publicly available records show that CityU Press maintains several thematic book series that gather publications within the same field. According to directories from independent distributors (Independent Publishers Group, IPG) and the Press’s own pages, the series directions include:

Note: Series names are given in the English forms that appear on the publisher/distributor pages; the specific in-print titles within each series change from year to year. This table serves only as a directional record and does not represent an exhaustive list of all series.

# 2.4 Representative Titles

One of the titles most familiar to outside observers is connected to CityU’s former president, H.K. Chang (張信剛, term 1996–2007). His English-language book From Movable Type Printing to the World Wide Web: Essays on Civilizations, Cultures and Education was published under the CityU Press imprint^※. Covering the history of civilisations, culture, and education through cross-disciplinary essays, it reflects the author’s background: Chang, originally a biomedical engineer, oversaw CityU’s disciplinary expansion during his tenure, while his personal writings — which span both humanities and popular science — have often been published in Chinese by various houses across the Taiwan Strait and in Hong Kong (for instance, Travels in the Greater Middle East, Tea and Coffee, and The Cultivation of a University). Those Chinese-language editions, however, were mostly published by houses other than CityU Press and should not be indiscriminately attributed to the Press.

In April 2026, CityU Press published A Legacy on the Track: The 75-Year Story of The Hong Kong, China Association of Athletics Affiliates, released by CityU Press^※, a recent title within its Hong Kong studies / local history direction.

# 2.5 Distribution and Dissemination Channels

In addition to direct sales, CityU Press titles are distributed internationally through networks of independent overseas book distributors (such as Independent Publishers Group)^※. The Press also maintains official social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Issuu and elsewhere to announce new titles and share excerpts. In recent years, the Press has participated in local reading-promotion projects such as “Open Books Hong Kong” — according to its blog, “Open Books Hong Kong” was shortlisted for THE Awards Asia 2026^※.

# 2.6 CityU’s Scholarly Publishing Ecosystem (Beyond the Press)

CityU’s scholarly publishing is not limited to its Press alone. Its schools and departments produce or host several peer-reviewed academic journals, the most notable of which is the City University of Hong Kong Law Review, discussed above and published by the School of Law. Scholars in fields such as creative media, media and communication, and energy and environment also widely publish monographs and journal articles through international publishers and journals. The university additionally operates the institutional repository CityU Scholars (scholars.cityu.edu.hk), which aggregates the research output of its academics.

Compared with Hong Kong University Press and The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, CityU Press was established relatively late (1996) and has a more limited historical scale and accumulation; yet it continues to publish consistently in areas such as China studies, Hong Kong studies, and public policy. Differences in publication volume, history, and positioning among the three university presses are a matter of respective institutional choice; this archive makes no evaluative comparisons.