Academic Journals Hosted or Edited by HKU

This article belongs to the "HKU Wild History · The University of Hong Kong (HKU) Unofficial History Data Site" 12 Miscellaneous module, focusing on academic journals published or edited by HKU faculties/centres, and clarifying several common misattributions (titles containing "Hong Kong" that are nevertheless not HKU journals). Information current as of June 2026; journal affiliations and founding years have been independently verified, and non-HKU titles have been explicitly excluded.

"Journal affiliation" is the easiest place for wild-history errors to creep in: a name containing "Hong Kong" does not guarantee an HKU provenance, and the fact that an HKU academic sits on a journal's editorial board does not make it an HKU publication. This article adopts a strict classification based on the "journal's publishing/editorial host": it includes only those journals published/edited by an HKU faculty or research centre. External journals on which HKU staff merely serve on the editorial board are not counted as HKU publications. For the University Press, see hku-press-and-flagship-works.md.

# 1. Law

# 1.1 Hong Kong Law Journal

According to the HKU Faculty of Law – HKLJ homepage^※, the Hong Kong Law Journal is a peer-reviewed, general academic law journal published in collaboration with the HKU Faculty of Law. It was founded in 1971 and publishes authoritative scholarly articles of comparative or international significance. A 50th-anniversary retrospective published in Hong Kong Lawyer^※ notes that the journal was co-founded in 1971 by Mr. Henry Litton (列顯倫) together with a group of practising lawyers, and he served as its first Editor-in-Chief; Mr. John Rear (華仁), then a Senior Lecturer in the HKU Department of Law, was a suitable choice as co-editor because of his legal publishing background. Mr. Litton later became a Permanent Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal—this episode of "founding an academic law journal" formed a chapter of his scholarly publishing credentials before his later judicial career. The current Editor-in-Chief is Professor Rick Glofcheski (祈理士). The journal is indexed in Scopus, the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Current Contents/Social & Behavioral Sciences, and the Index to Legal Periodicals and Books, among other authoritative databases. It celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2020.

# 1.2 Hong Kong Journal of Legal Studies

According to the HKJLS homepage^※, the Hong Kong Journal of Legal Studies describes itself as "the oldest student-run flagship legal journal in Hong Kong" (自述為「香港最古老的學生主辦旗艦法律期刊」). It was founded in 1994, is housed in the HKU Faculty of Law (Room 403, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, Centennial Campus), and is student-run and student-edited.

Classification note: HKLJ is an academic journal co-published with the Faculty; HKJLS is a student-run student journal. Both are associated with the HKU Faculty of Law, but the hosting entity differs, which is noted separately on this site.

# 2. Linguistics

# Asian Journal of Applied Linguistics

According to the Wikipedia entry^※, the Asian Journal of Applied Linguistics is published by the HKU Centre for Applied English Studies, with the founding year recorded as 1979.

Note: The Wikipedia entry gives "1979" as the founding year. The year the journal began operating under its current name and its earlier history may be subject to different interpretations (some applied linguistics journals have undergone renaming or restructuring). This site follows the Wikipedia lead in recording that it is published by the HKU Centre for Applied English Studies; the founding year should be confirmed by the journal's own official disclosures or the publisher's information for the relevant year.

# 2b. Public Administration

# Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration (APJPA)

According to the official introduction from the HKU Department of Politics and Public Administration^※, the Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration (APJPA) is an academic, double-blind peer-reviewed journal dedicated to advancing research on public governance, policy, administration, and management in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. The journal is now published and distributed by Routledge (Taylor and Francis) from March 2014 onwards, but, as the Department's official page clearly states, the HKU Department of Politics and Public Administration remains the owner and the editorial home of the journal, responsible for ensuring its academic rigour and relevance. This collaborative model—an external publisher handling distribution while HKU's department retains ownership and editorial leadership—resembles the "faculty co-publication" model of the Hong Kong Law Journal described above, and is a common strategy among HKU academic journals to "retain academic leadership" amid the commercialisation of international academic publishing. The department's official page does not specify the journal's exact founding year or its original host institution; these details await further verification.

# 3. Medical Ethics

# Asian Bioethics Review (ABR)

According to the Springer editorial board page^※, the Asian Bioethics Review (ABR) is a quarterly, international academic journal grounded in Asia. Its editorial leadership includes scholars associated with HKU's Centre for Medical Ethics and Law (CMEL) (a centre jointly established by the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Law).

Affiliation note: ABR's publishing entity is Springer, and HKU scholars participate in its editorial leadership. This site lists it as a journal "with deep editorial involvement by HKU scholars," not as a publication "independently hosted and published by HKU"—a strict classification, with the nature of its affiliation noted.

# 4. HKU Libraries Journal Digitisation Platform

In addition to hosting journals, HKU Libraries operates Hong Kong Journals Online (HKJo)^※, a full-text image database providing access to selected academic and professional journals published in Hong Kong in disciplines such as law, medicine, and education. This platform is a digital archiving/access service; the journals it includes are not all published by HKU. It is therefore categorised under "Library Services" rather than "HKU-Published Journals."

# 5. Common Misattributions (Excluded Titles)

The following journals contain "Hong Kong" in their titles or are otherwise associated with Hong Kong, but have been verified as not being published by HKU. They are explicitly excluded from this site to prevent misattribution:

⚠ Incomplete scoping: The number of journals hosted or edited by HKU faculties and research centres changes from year to year. This article only catalogues those whose affiliation can be confirmed from official or publisher primary sources. Several other journals in education, social sciences, humanities, and other faculties, or journals co-edited with external publishers, are not exhaustively listed here. Readers requiring a complete list should consult the official disclosures of the relevant HKU faculties and research centres.

# 6. See Also

• HKU Press and Flagship Works → hku-press-and-flagship-works.md
• Library System and Special Collections → libraries-and-museums.md
• Faculties → ../01-academics/