It is published by Elsevier and the editor-in-chief is Hongge Pan, Livio Battezzati.

It was the first journal established to focus specifically on a group of inorganic elements.

[2] The journal developed out of an international symposium on metals and alloys above 1200 °C which Hume-Rothery organized at Oxford University on September 17–18, 1958.

The papers presented at the symposium "The study of metals and alloys above 1200°C" were published as volume 1 of the journal.

[1][3] The journal obtained its current name in 1991[4] and is considered a particularly rich source of information on hydrogen-metal systems.