Journal history

The prestigious historian Jaume Vicens Vives founded the journal INDICE HISTÓRICO ESPAÑOL in 1953. It was conceived as a critical and informative quarterly publication based on recent bibliography on the history of Spain and Latin America. 

In the initial stage, each volume (made up of several issues)  contained a prologue written by a specialist, and consisted of a state of the art on a historical topic; approach  that was maintained for many years.

The Latin American section disappeared in 1992. Since then it has focused only on publications on the history of Spain, although it has maintained a section on general works. As of 2011, the journal experienced some changes in order to adapt it to new information and communication technologies. In this way, a double version had been  presented: 1) In paper format; 2) In electronic access format. The first format included states of the art and reviews of works of special interest to scholars of Spanish history. The second one was used to comment on new publications distributed in various sections in chronological order.

As of the year 2021, and including issue 134, the journal has modified its approaches. It is published in digital format and its structure consists of the following areas: tributes, articles, states of the art and bibliographic reviews. Therefore, the publication of online reviews has been suppressed and an annual issue has been carried out.

The history of the journal can be reviewed using the following link, that summarizes its history from its beginnings to the present: https://www.ub.edu/cehi-expoihe