The Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis – Revue belge d’histoire contemporaine (Belgian Journal for Modern and Contemporary History) was established in 1969 by professor Jan Dhondt, who at that time was leading the 'Seminar for modern and contemporary history' at the University of Ghent. After his sudden death in 1972 his initiative was carried on by the Jan Dhondt Stichting vzw. This foundation was responsible for the publishing of the journal until 2011. Its editorial board contained representatives of all Belgian universities, assisted by an advisory board of foreign colleagues.  The journal contained articles of mainly early stage researchers and this way, it provided a good overview of the current field. The 'Chronicle' contained abstracts of recently defended doctoral dissertations. All the articles are peer-reviewed and have a French-Dutch, and English summary.

Articles appearing in this journal are abstracted/indexed by Historical Abstracts, PP/SWTL and, since 2007, the ISI Arts and Humanities Citation Index.