The Việt Nam Academy of Social Sciences is a research institute under the government. Its institutional predecessors were the Department of Literature, History and Geography, which was established in 1953 and subsequently renamed the National Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities. It received its present name in 2004. The Academy has the task of identifying, organising and conducting short-term and long-term research projects, undertaking joint projects with international institutions, taking part in the planning of development strategies for the national social sciences and humanities and training researchers in social sciences and humanities at graduate and postgraduate levels. At the present time the Academy focuses its research efforts on issues of national and national importance in the social sciences and humanities. It also conducts comprehensive socio-economic surveys in all regions of the country in order to build a national databank for the social sciences and humanities. The Council of Science, consisting of highly-trained researchers representing all branches of the social sciences and humanities, acts as a consultant agency to Academy leadership on scientific matters. The Academy has a total staff of 1,335, including 760 researchers. In addition to undertaking research, it also functions to train researchers in the social sciences and humanities at the postgraduate level, to participate in university teaching and to contribute to the development of a highly-qualified team of researchers across the country. The Academy conducts scientific collaboration and exchange programmes with research institutions and individual researchers in many different countries. Every year it sends hundreds of its researchers overseas and also receives many foreign scholars who undertake research and study at the Institute. The Academy manages 17 research institutes (the Institute of Philosophy, the Institute of Sociology, the Institute of Economics, the Institute of World Economics, the Institute of State and Law, the Institute of History, the Institute of Human Studies, the Institute of Archaeology, the Institute of Ethnology, the Institute of Literature, the Institute of Linguistics, the Institute of Folklore Studies, the Institute of Hán-Nôm Studies, the Institute of Psychology, the Institute of South East Asian Studies, the Institute of Religious Studies, the Institute of Social Sciences in Hồ Chí Minh City), six study centres (the Centre for Chinese Studies, the Centre for Japanese Studies, the Centre for European Studies, the Centre for North American Studies, the Centre for Human Geography, the Centre for Family and Women’s Studies) the Museum of Ethnology, the Institute of Social Sciences Information, the Social Sciences Publishing House, the Thông tin Khoa học Xã hội (Social Sciences Information) Magazine and the Xã hội học (Sociology) Review. The Institute of Social Sciences Information is the largest library of social sciences and humanities in Việt Nam and contains a valuable collection of old books, manuscripts and photos. The Academy publishes about 200 books annually on different topics in the social sciences and humanities. Research results are published in its Thông tin Khoa học Xã hội (Social Sciences Information) Magazine and Xã hội học (Sociology) Review and in the 25 specialised reviews of its various research institutes and centres.