For fifty years, the journal Cîteaux: commentarii cistercienses has made an important contribution to the study of Cistercian history.

 Each year it offers readers a volume of approximately 400 octavo pages, usually in two double fascicles. Each issue contains articles, shorter communications, book reviews, and brief reports on historic sites today in a variety of languages (French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch...)

Articles include all periods of Cistercian history, and all areas (art, archaeology, law, economy, liturgy, spirituality...) Each article is followed by summaries in French, English, and German.

Communications are shorter presentations, often concerning recent discoveries, works-in-progress, or matters of scholarly detail.

Critical reviews of new book keep readers abreast of the lastest research in Cistercian studies.

The Editorial Board meets twice a year to discuss all the manuscript that have been submitted to the journal.  

The Bulletin d'Histoire Cistercienne/ Cistercian History Abstracts was published from 1987 to 1993. It consists of an inventory of material of Cistercian interest drawn from almost 600 periodicals throughout the world, intended to provide a comprehensive Cistercian bibliography.

 In addition, the journal publishes two collections of specialised works: Studia et Documenta and Textes et Documents.