The journal was the result of the merger of Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, Spolia Zeylanica, and Bulletin of the Ceylon Fisheries.

The journal had several sections, covering different fields, but now consists of a single quarterly publication.

Section D was renamed to Ceylon Journal of Medical Science in 1965 and is now published by the University of Colombo.

Section G (covering anthropology, archaeology and ethnology) ceased publication in 1954.

It caters research articles from different scientific disciplines under five themes; Chemistry; Earth and Environment; Mathematics, Statistics & IT; Life Sciences and Physics.