The Northwestern Seismological Journal is the earliest academic journal published in the field of seismology in northwest China. This paper briefly reviews the development process of the Northwestern Seismological Journal from 1979 to 2012, sketches the development experience and its position in the academic journals of Earth sciences in China, describes the role it plays in the advancement of seismological research and earthquake prevention and disaster reduction in China. At last, we make the statistics of key appraisal indexes of the Northwestern Seismological Journal from 1998 to 2012.