The JJP was founded in 1946 by Raphael Taubenschlag who at that time was Head of Chair of Papyrology at Columbia University in New York. Since 1947 it has been published in Warsaw, after Taubenschlag's death by Henryk Kupiszewski and Jerzy Manteuffel. The present editors are Tomasz Derda, Ewa Wipszycka-Bravo and Jakub Urbanik. The Journal is published yearly under the auspices of the Departament of Papyrology of Warsaw University. The volume XXXI (2001) has just come out.

The Journal is one of the leading specialistic reviews publishing articles and essays on papyrology and epigraphy and devoted to the history of the Nile Valley in Graeco-Roman and Byzantine periods.