It covers research in the structure and function of cells, tissues, and organs as well as components of development, differentiation, and disease, as well as microscopy and imaging techniques.

The editor-in-chief as of January 1, 2016 is Stephen M. Hewitt[2] of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda Maryland, USA.

The immediate past editor-in-chief is John R. Couchman (University of Copenhagen).

The Histochemical Society was founded in 1950 and at its 1951 meeting a committee tasked with creating a journal for histochemistry was appointed.

The founding editor was Ralph D. Lillie[4] and the first issue of the Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry was published in January 1953.