Virologist Alexander Kohn and physicist Harry J. Lipkin founded The Journal of Irreproducible Results in 1955 in Ness Ziona, Israel. Kohn remained editor until 1989, and died in 1994. Lipkin remained an editor until volume 16, number 1, August 1967, when Kohn became Editor-in-Chief, and Lipkin became one of the associate editors. S. A. Rudin because an editor with volume 12, number 1, and similarly became an associate editor with volume 16, number 1. The number of associate editors (later called Editorial Board members) has fluctuated greatly over succeeding years.

Medical researcher George H. Scherr was publisher from 1964 to volume 34, number 4, 1989. From 1990 to 1994, JIR was published by Blackwell Scientific Publications. Under Blackwell, James A. Krosschell was editor and publisher starting with volume 35, number 1, 1990, and remained publisher throughout the Blackwell ownership. Marc Abrahams was editor from volume 36, number 1, 1991, to the next-to-last Blackwell issue, volume 39, number 2, 1994. The final Blackwell issue, volume 39, number 3, was edited by Leslie A. Gaffney.

Blackwell returned JIR to George Scherr in 1994, and Scherr was both publisher and editor from then until 2003. Astronomer Norman Sperling became editor and publisher in 2004.

As far as we know:

• volume 1 was a joke and never existed
• volumes 2-3 had 1 issue each
• volumes 4-6 had 2 issues each
• volumes 7-18 had 3 issues each
• volumes 19-30 had 4 issues each
• volumes 31 and 32 had 5 issues each
• volume 33 had 6 issues
• volume 34 had 4 issues
• volumes 35-42 had 6 issues each
• volumes 43-48 had 5 issues each, with the last issue double-length
• volume 49 and on have 6 issues each

• Onderzoekerskunst, Alexander Kohn. 99 pages in Dutch. Amsterdam: Scheltema and Holkema Publishing Company, 1963.
  
  
• Don't Quote Me, Alexander Kohn, editor. 64 pages, paperback. Chicago Heights, Illinois: Consolidated Laboratories, Inc., 1965.
  
  
• Journal of Irreproducible Results, Selected Papers, James Ertel, compiler. 287 pages. Chicago: JIR Publishers, 1976. 1-14135761-5.
  
  
• Selected Papers: The Journal of Irreproducible Results. George H. Scherr, editor. 287 pages. Chicago Heights, Illinois: The Journal of Irreproducible Results, first and second printings, 1981. 0-9605852-1-4.
  
  
• The Best of the Journal of Irreproducible Results. George H. Scherr, editor; Richard Liebmann-Smith, associate editor. 208 pages, paperback. New York: Workman, 1983. At least 5 printings through 1989. 0-89480-595-9.
  
  
• Selected Papers: The Journal of Irreproducible Results, Third Edition. George H. Scherr, editor. 306 pages. New York: Dorset Press of Marboro Books, 1986. 0-930376-42-0.
  
  
• Journal der Unwiederholbaren Experimente, George H. Scherr, editor. 195 pages in German. Frankfurt: Wolfgang Kruger Verlag, 1986. 3-8105-1713-5.
  
  
• Journal der Unwiederholbaren Experimente II, George H. Scherr, editor. 158 pages in German. Frankfurt: Wolfgang Kruger Verlag, 1989. 3-8105-1714-3.
  
  
• Sex as a Heap of Malfunctioning Rubble (and further improbabilities): More of the Best of the Journal of Irreproducible Results. Marc Abrahams, editor. 208 pages, paperback. New York: Workman, 1993. 1-56305-312-8.
  
  
• Journal of Irreproducible Results II, George H. Scherr and Jim Glenn, editors. 214 pages. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1997. 0-7670-00428-8. Second printing 2000.
  
  
• This Book Warps Space and Time, Norman Sperling, editor. 288 pages. Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008. 978-0-7407-7713-4, 0-7407-7713-0.