Shima is a SCOPUS registered peer-refereed academic journal that is published twice a year in open access online form and has been registered with the Directory of Open Access Journals since 2007.

Shima publishes:

• Theoretical and/or comparative studies of island, marine, lacustrine or riverine cultures
• Case studies of island, marine, lacustrine or riverine cultures
• Accounts of collaborative research and development projects in island, marine, lacustrine or riverine locations
• Analyses of "island-like" insular spaces (such as peninsular "almost islands," enclaves, exclaves and micronations)
• Analyses of fictional representations of islands, "islandness," oceanic, lacustrine and riverine issues
• In-depth "feature" reviews of publications, media texts, exhibitions, events etc. concerning the above
• Photo and Video Essays on any aspects of the above

Shima addresses social, cultural, environmental and conceptual aspects of various types of island, peninsular and otherwise insular coastal and shoreline communities, their relationship to the oceanic, estuarine, deltaic, riverine and/or lacustrine environments that substantially define them and the manner in which various types of engineered waterways and bodies of water constitute cultural landscapes in terrestrial locations.