Since its establishment it has published numerous volumes of calendars and indices of public records, private muniments and original manuscripts relating to Scotland and Scottish affairs.
[1] Membership of the Society is open to all persons and institutions interested in its work.
George MacKenzie, former Keeper of the Records of Scotland and Registrar General, is President.
During its first decade the Society concentrated on transcribing and publishing detailed indices of testaments (wills) proved in Scottish Commissariot Courts.
[2] The volumes of records produced by the SRS are part of a deep "empirical tradition" in Scottish historiography.