Initially, from its foundation in 1977, the journal was published under the title Marksističke teme, as a journal in the area of Marxist theory and practice. The founder was the University of Niš, and the publisher was the Centre for Marxist education at the University of Niš. Prof. dr Petar Kozić was the first Editor-in-chief, and was succeeded by prof. dr Gligorije Zaječaranović (1978-1982), prof. dr Milivoje Andrejević (1983-1987) and prof. dr Marko Sekulović (1987-1991).
From 1989 (Issue 1-2/1989), the publisher was the University of Niš, and in 1990, the title of the journal was changed into TEME. Since then, it had three Editors-in-chief: prof. dr Miomir Ivković (1991-2000), prof. dr Dragoljub B. Djordjević (2001-2010), and prof. dr Vesna Miltojević (2011-2015).