The Official Journal is similar to other main governmental journals (as the United States Federal Register or the Canada Gazette), but they differ from each other because they respond primarily to their type of government and secondly to their legal system.

In the Official Journal, the main rules and regulations of the three branches of the federal government are published.

Once a law or regulation is published, ignorance of it is no longer a legal defence.

The Official Journal contains treaties, laws, decrees, sentences, agreements, resolutions, general and judicial warnings, national and international public bids to provide the government with goods and services, among other issues concerning the three Branches of the Federation.

The responsibility for its compilation is within the Secretariat of the Interior (Secretary of Government), officially known as Secretaría de Gobernación, or SEGOB.