Divided into two sections, the "Magazine" contains political and historical articles, biographical memoirs, accounts of discoveries in medicine, science and agriculture, and fiction and poetry by such figures as Smollett and Beattie.

Other contributors included many Enlightenment figures, among whom is believed to have been David Hume and Adam Smith. The introduction to the set - describing, among other things, the infighting between the editors and their publisher, the lawsuits thrown at editors, the work in the British critical tradition and the reason for its demise - should put this work in context and make it more accessible to the modern reader.