Asian Studies Review was founded in 1977 and was originally known as the ASAA Review. The Review replaced the ASAA Newsletter, which appeared six times between 1975 and 1976. The first editor of the Review was Tony Reid, who edited the first three issues before Japan specialist John Caiger took over in 1978-1979. Jamie Mackie became editor from 1980 to 1984, followed by Anthony Milner until the end of 1989. Mackie and Milner worked closely together throughout the 1980s, editing a total of 30 issues.

            As the original name suggests, the journal initially served mainly as a means of communicating with members of the newly formed Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA). Although it was common for a substantial portion of any given issue to be devoted to book reviews and review essays, the first few volumes dedicated most of their pages to developments in the field (e.g., upcoming events, lists of recently completed doctoral, MA, and Honours theses, and publications on Asia by Australian scholars), resources provided by and for secondary-school teachers, and reports on Asia-related conferences. By the early 1980s, there was a quiet campaign underway – including in the pages of the journal – to convert the journal into a place for more ‘intellectual inquiry’ and less ‘organisational details’ (see e.g., Jamie Mackie’s commentary in vol. 4, 1980).

            Partly in response to this campaign, Mackie and Milner increased the size of the Review, added more review articles, and introduced (in the front matter) commissioned think-pieces with an emphasis on academic debate, including about the way in which different disciplines were approaching Asian Studies topics. The aim was not to create a conventional academic journal, but to stress the idea of ‘Review’ – a forum for lively academic debate, and for building a sense of community among Australia-based Asianists. In order to attract stimulating contributions from a wide range of specialists covering many disciplines and Asian regions and societies, the editorial committee was greatly expanded, including to achieve a more comprehensive book review coverage.

            While ASR retained much of its communicative functions, substantive research essays became more common. There was an initial focus on Asian literature, and authors (and editors) conveyed a belief that the journal could play a role in making Australians more familiar with the culture of their neighbouring societies. Other topics included urban development in Asia, the history of the Indian Ocean region, democracy and development in comparative perspective, and the vigorous debate stimulated by Edward Said’s Orientalism. A commonality was a sense that Australians needed to become more knowledgeable about the momentous changes in the region. The Asian Studies ideas and concerns of the first President of the ASAA, J. D. Legge (Monash University) were an important influence in this decade of the Review.

            In 1990, the journal acquired a new name, design, editors, and base, when Bob Elson assumed responsibility for editing Asian Studies Review at Griffith University. Common themes at this time included the Garnaut report, Australia’s growing economic enmeshment with Asia, and Australia’s future in the Asia–Pacific. A new ‘communications’ section was introduced to cater to ‘organisational’ matters, but by now most of the journal was devoted to formal academic studies. In the mid-1990s, the journal was based at Monash University, and this trend continued. The mix in topics became more even between the humanities and social sciences, and some themes covered at this time were women and the state, economic liberalisation, democracy, the East Asian miracle, and pre- and post-colonial history, and literature (including e.g., Shakespeare in Asia). The editors introduced a short section for film and video reviews.       

            Since 1998, under the editorship of Kam Louie and his successors, the journal has made the transition to a conventional academic journal. Areas that have traditionally fallen outside of the scope of Asian Studies, such as film, popular culture, health sciences, the environment, religion, diaspora, gender, and sexuality (sometimes collectively referred to as ‘the new humanities’), have been given much more prominence in the pages of the journal. At the same time, there has been ample coverage of the social and political sciences, with themes such as identity politics, patriarchy, class and power, governance and capitalism, and the developmental state.

            With the emergence of ASR as a comprehensive area studies journal, it achieved SSCI listing in 2011. The Impact Factor has gradually risen and the quartile ranking also steadily improved, reaching an all-time high of 0.653 in the 2024 Scimago Journal Ranking. In its key disciplinary domains of Cultural Studies and History, ASR has continuously held Q1 status since 2014 and it was awarded additional Q1 status in Sociology and Political Science for the first time in 2024.