The European Bulletin of Himalayan Research (EBHR) is one of the few scientific journals covering research in the humanities and social sciences on the scale of the Himalayas. The subjects covered by the journal range from geography and economics to anthropology, sociology, philology, linguistics, history, art history, archaeology and the history of religions. This multidisciplinarity has always defined the mission of the journal, which publishes in all fields of specialization of the humanities and social sciences dealing with the Himalayas as a cultural area not limited to the geological region. For thirty years, the journal has been published by a collective of European researchers and coordinated alternately from Heidelberg (South Asia Institute), Paris (CNRS) and London (SOAS).

The first issue, published in the spring of 1991, presented the bulletin as the realization of a modest intention on the part of European researchers specializing in the Himalayas to "keep us informed of current research and research opportunities in our field"^[1].

The representatives of the South Asia Institute in Heidelberg who were at the origin of this initiative announced their intention to publish this bulletin for a trial period of two years, "on the understanding that we would retire with dignity at the end of that period, should the interest and commitment of a sufficient number of scholars prove illusory". With funding limited to two years and no paid employment, the sustainability of this enterprise was far from assured.

In appearance, the contents of the first ten issues^[1] conformed to the title of "bulletin" with information on current research, review articles, notes on political news, announcements of upcoming conferences and funding. The vast majority of contributions were then devoted to Nepal. This period in this country was that of the pro-democracy uprising of 1990 and the restoration of multiparty politics. The bulletin followed this development very closely with press kits and reviews of publications in Nepali and in European languages.

Although their titles remained unchanged, the sections "Review articles" and "Topical reports" quickly expanded to become real research articles. The EBHR gave rise to ambitious initiatives such as a detailed and critical inventory of the Himalayan archives in Paris^[2] by Lucette Boulnois and Pierrette Massonnet, the two successive documentalists successive editions of the Himalaya team (and then Centre d'Études Himalayennes) at CNRS. The bulletin attracted more and more attention outside the European academic public and from issue 5 onwards, subscriptions from libraries and individuals were numerous enough to allow self-financing.

Issue 11, dated 1996, marked a turning point in the editorial project, which became a full-fledged scientific journal, publishing research articles whose authors were senior and junior confirmed researchers, as well as doctoral students. In the years that followed, the issues varied with thematic issues: No. 12-13 (1997) devoted to ethnomusicology and including a CD; No. 15-16 (1998) devoted to photography and dedicated to Corneille Jest; No. 25-26 (2003) on the theme "Representing Local Histories in the Himalayas"; No. 29-30 (2006) entitled "Anthropology of Western Himalayas"; No. 32 (2008) devoted to North-East India; No. 33-34 (2008) “Revolutionary Nepal”; No. 35-36 (2009) “Nepalese migrations”; No. 43 (2013) "The Bhutanese Refugee Resettlement Experience": No. 50-51 (2017) "Relations between Britain and Nepal"; No. 58 (2022) "Storying multi-species relationships, commoning and the state in the Himalayas"; No. 62 (2024) "The Himalayas from its edges: networks, identities, and place-making".

In 1994 Richard Burghart, scholar^[3] and main editor of the bulletin, died prematurely. At the same time, the EBHR expanded its editorial team and designed a rotating editorship^[4]. Since 1996, the editorial work has been alternately coordinated by the Himalaya team of the CNRS in France, by the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and by the Südasien-Institut of the the University of Heidelberg, at intervals of two to five years.

In 2005, the EBHR collection (No. 1 to 22) was the subject of a first deposit of digitized files on the site Digital Himalaya^[2], an archive site of ethnographic materials created by Alan Macfarlane and Mark Turin. This policy of systematic deposit allowing free online access to the content of the journal was continued thanks to the active support of Mark Turin until 2020, with a sliding barrier that evolved over the years, between one year and six months.

From 2004, the composition and printing of the printed issues were entrusted to the Social Science Baha (Nepal) which also ensured the distribution in Asia where the journal was marketed in bookstores. As of 2021, and with the support of CNRS SHS (the Institute of Human and Social Sciences of the CNRS)^[5], the journal has made its digital transition to immediate open access distribution following diamond model. The journal has adopted a creative common CC BY license and contracts with authors the distribution of content via a non-exclusive transfer^[6]. This transition from a printed journal to an online journal was initially accomplished (2021-2023) on the "journal incubator" ^[7] of the Université de Bourgogne, with the aim of migrating in the short term (2024) to the OpenEdition Journals platform.

Articles submitted for publication are peer-reviewed in a double-blind manner^[6] and editorial decisions are made by the editors, in consultation with the members of the scientific committee according to their thematic and/or disciplinary expertise.

The responsibility for the journal is shared, on a rotating basis of four years, between the three European institutions that founded it: the Centre d'études himalayennes (CNRS), the South Asia Institute (University of Heidelberg, Germany) and the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London, United Kingdom). Supported by this institutional network and a pool of international experts, the journal has always promoted multidisciplinary research on the Himalayan region as a whole, by publishing original articles and by constituting a platform for exchange and information.

Germany / South Asia Institute (1991, No. 1 – 1995, No. 9) : editorial board composed of Richard Burghart^[3] (until 1993), András Höfer, Martin Gaenszle, Brigitte Merz (from 1993).

France / CNRS (1996, No. 10 – 1998-1999, No. 15-16) : editorial board composed of Pascale Dollfus, Corneille Jest, Marie Lecomte-Tilouine (editorial secretary), Anne de Sales and Gérard Toffin.

United Kingdom / SOAS (1999, No. 17 – 2002, No. 22) : Editorial board composed of Ben Campbell (Manchester, in charge of reviews), William Douglas (Oxford), David Gellner (Brunel), Michael Hutt (SOAS, sub-editor), Christian McDonaugh (Oxford Brookes Univ.), Maria Phylactou, Andrew Russell (Durham) and Surya Subedi (Hull).

Germany / South Asia Institute (2002, No. 23 – 2005, No. 28) : Editorial board composed of William S. Sax (editorial secretary), Martin Gaenszle, Elvira Graner, András Höfer, Axel Michaels, Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka, Mona Schrempf and Claus Peter Zoller.

France / CNRS (2006, No. 29-30 – 2009-2010, No. 35-36) : Editorial board composed of Pascale Dollfus, András Höfer, Marie Lecomte-Tilouine, Boyd Michailowsky, Philippe Ramirez (editorial secretary), Blandine Ripert, and Anne de Sales. Editor responsible for manuscript corrections, Bernadette Sellers.

United Kingdom / SOAS (2010, No. 37 – 2014, No. 44) : Editorial Board composed of Michael Hutt (SOAS, Managing Editor), Ben Campbell (University of Durham), Ian Harper (University of Edinburgh), Sondra Hausner (University of Oxford), Sara Shneiderman (University of Cambridge) and Mark Turin (University of Cambridge, Associate Editor for Reviews)

Germany / South Asia Institute (2014, No. 45 – 2019, No. 53) : Editorial Board composed of William Sax (SAI, Sub-editor), Christoph Bergmann (SAI), Christiane Brosius (Karl Jaspers Centre, Heidelberg), Julia Dame (SAI), Axel Michaels (SAI), Marcus Nuesser (SAI), Karin Polit (SAI), Mona Schrempf (Berlin), Anja Wagner, Astrid Zotter (SAI), Heleen Plaisier, and Arik Moran (University of Haifa, Associate Editor for Reviews)

France / CNRS (2020, No. 54 – present): co-editors Tristan Bruslé, Stéphane Gros, and Philippe Ramirez. Associate Editor for Reviews, Arik Moran (University of Haifa) until 2023, then Tina Shresta (Hong Kong Shue Yan University and Waseda University). Editor in charge of corrections of manuscripts, Bernadette Sellers.

Various "associate editors" (contributing editors) have contributed to the journal, sometimes for several years, affiliated with various European institutions located in the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, etc.