Acta Palaeontologica Polonica is an international quarterly journal publishing papers of general interest from all areas of paleontology. Since its founding by Roman Kozłowski in 1956, various currents of modern paleontology have been represented in the contents of the journal, especially those rooted in biologically oriented paleontology, an area he helped establish.

In-depth studies of all kinds of fossils, of the mode of life of ancient organisms and structure of their skeletons are welcome, as those offering stratigraphically ordered evidence of evolution. Work on vertebrates and applications of fossil evidence to developmental studies, both ontogeny and astogeny of clonal organisms, have a long tradition in our journal. Evolution of the biosphere and its ecosystems, as inferred from geochemical evidence, has also been the focus of studies published in the journal.

The language of the journal is English. Submissions may be in the form of articles, brief reports, discussions, or paper/book reviews. Papers are evaluated on the originality of data, interpretations, and ideas, and on the degree to which their findings can be generalized. All papers are subject to peer reviews. Articles accepted for publication are usually published in order of submission. Exceptions are made for papers of particular scientific significance, and for manuscripts which fully comply with editorial requirements given in the instruction for authors and require only minor changes.

Acta Palaentologica Polonica is available in BioOne Complete through the 2016 volume. Current content is available Open Access on the journal's website.