It covers anthropology, sociology, and political science.

Two issues are published per year by University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Australian Centre on China in the World (having previously been published on behalf of Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific).

Its current editor is Ben Hillman (ANU), associate editor is Edward Sing Yue Chan (ANU), and book review editor is Jonathan Unger (ANU).

[3][4] The journal is abstracted and indexed in the Social Sciences Citation Index and is listed in the Journal Citation Reports with a 2023 impact factor of 4.7, ranking #1 out of 176 “Area Studies” journals.

[5] It is also indexed in PubMed, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, GEOBASE, Historical Abstracts, International Political Science Abstracts, ProQuest 5000, and MLA International Bibliography.