It aims to describe, assess and foster understanding of the role of wide-area, multi-purpose computer networks such as the Internet.

The journal was founded as Electronic Networks in 1990, with the first articles published in 1991.

Articles from 1991 onward are available online at the journal's website.

Emerald acquired the journal from Mecklermedia in 1995.

The current editor is Christy M. K. Cheung, Department of Finance and Decision Sciences, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong Editors-in-chief of the journal have included: There have been several highly cited articles published in Internet Research, including the 1992 article "World‐wide web: the information universe",[1] which is one of the first academic articles where Sir Tim Berners-Lee mentions the phrase "World-wide web".