Encyclopedia contains about 5000 large detailed articles on various topics with an emphasis on social sciences. All illustrations and design are colored, which is new for this kind of encyclopedias, published in the Netherlands.
The editor-in-chief of the encyclopaedia in 1972-1974 was Inez van Eyck, who in 1971-1972 also was preparing articles for the publication.
The circulation of the encyclopedia, as a rule, was sold with the delivery of volumes to the house. The total cost was 2500 guilders . As a rule, the possibility of buying on credit was used, the payment of which amounted to 60 guilders per month for a full five years.
The rise of new storage media in the 1990s (CD-ROM, DVD) halted the plans for a second edition of the Grote Spectrum Encyclopedie. An actualised supplement did appear in 2002.
