The Jay K. Kochi Papers contains 81 boxes. The collection is organized into eight series: Research and Publications, Correspondence, Financial, Biographical/Awards, Lectures, Photographs, Audiovisual Materials, and Digital Materials. The collection contains copies of Kochi's publications, correspondence regarding the publications, correspondence to and from Kochi, documents regarding grants and other financial matters, lecture images, biographical information, and floppy disks and CDs. Materials in the collection span from the 1946 to 2008 with the bulk of the collection dated from 1970-2000. From 1968 until 1984 Kochi worked at the University of Indiana and some of the collection covers his work there, but the majority of the collection is from Kochi's time at the University of Houston, 1984-2008.

For preservation and access reasons, the files have been reboxed and refoldered. Kochi gave each of his publications a unique identifying number from 1 to 573 and recorded publication information in a key. Manuscripts, drafts, and correlating correspondence have been filed in numerical order based upon Kochi's unique identifying numbers. Offprints of Kochi's publications have been separated from the manuscripts and filed numerically as well. Correspondence not related to manuscripts has been filed alphabetically, and attachments pertaining to specific correspondence have been kept with that correspondence. Financial documentation and lecture images have been kept in original order whenever possible. When available, original folder names have been maintained.