Jurnal Dakwah Risalah has been registered to PDDI LIPI and got printed ISSN based on SK N. 18.251/IV.3.05/ISSN/2001 on 14 May 2001. During the period of the journal publishing, there were some changes in identity due to the lost printed ISSN registration’s document. Once, it was published with the title Risalah: Jurnal Kajian Dakwah, Komunikasi dan Kemasyarakatan, after that Jurnal Risalah: Jurnal Kajian Dakwah, Komunikasi dan Kemasyarakatan. The title changed into Jurnal Dakwah Risalah when it was registered to online ISSN, applied from Vol. 29, No. 2, December 2018.
Jurnal Dakwah Risalah firstly published its articles on the Open Journal System (OJS) in Vol. 24, No. 2 (2013): November 2013, but it was not all of the articles published in the website. All articles started to be published in the online journal in Vol. 26, No. 1 (2015): March 2015. Along with the period 2013 to 2017, the articles were published through quick submit. While the process of submitting, reviewing, and editing articles were done manually.
In 2018, Jurnal Dakwah Risalah fully implements the business process in OJS, in which all the processes have been done based on the mechanism. In 2019, Jurnal Dakwah Risalah submitted for accreditation and received Sinta 4.
Following up on the assessors’ assessment, Jurnal Dakwah Risalah keeps maintaining its management and content. Previously, this journal had focus and scope in dawah and communication field study. In order to considerate the assessor's recommendation and academic reason, and also the result of study comparison in other similar journals, therefore it changed the focus and scope becoming Islamic Communication, Contemporary Dakwah, Management of Dakwah, Islamic Counselling, and Development of Islamic Society.
In 2019, Jurnal Dakwah Risalah made MoU with organizations of profession and the association of journal managers, they are Asosiasi Profesi Dakwah Indonesia (APDI), Perkumpulan Pengelola Jurnal Ilmu Dakwah (PPJID), and Asosasi Penerbit Jurnal Ilmu Komunikasi Indonesia (APJIKI). Since 5 April 2020, Jurnal Dakwah Risalah has been indexed in DOAJ with category Green Tick.
Jurnal Dakwah Risalah has been accredited on level 2 (Sinta 2) by Ministry of Research and Technology/ National Agency for Research and Innovation of the Republic of Indonesia (Surat Keputusan Menteri Riset dan Teknologi/ Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional Nomor 148/M/KPT/2020 tentang Peringkat Akreditasi Jurnal Ilmiah Periode II Tahun 2020) valid for 5 years from Volume 30 No. 2 2019 to Volume 35 No. 1 2024 (Certificate).
There has been a change on focus and scope in Jurnal Dakwah Risalah. The former focus and scope discusses on da’wah issues in Indonesia, consisting of Islamic Communication, Da'wah Contemporary, Da’wah Management, Islamic Counselling and Islamic Community Development. Starting from Volume 32, Issues 2 of 2021, the focus and scope of the Journal has been changed to Da’wah issues (Islamic Proselytizing) in Muslim societies, including Local Culture Da'wah, Da’wah for Development, Da’wah for Islamic Moderation and Contemporary Da'wah.