Material found in the Chain collection includes correspondence, submissions, and production material for all twelve issues from 1993-2005. Chain is organized into two main series. The first series, issues, is organized with production material appearing first containing business financial material, dummies, proofs, mock-ups, and audio/visual material. Production material is followed by correspondence and submissions from poets arranged in alphabetical order. Starting with issue four, rejections have been separated and are arranged alphabetically after the accepted work. The second series, correspondence, contains general correspondence about the magazine starting with electronic mail correspondence between Jena Osman and Juliana Spahr arranged by year from 1997-2004, followed by other correspondence (mostly electronic mail) arranged alphabetically by correspondent.

Formats found in the collection include mostly printed electronic mail, general mail correspondence, artwork, photographic material, 3 ½ and 5 ¼ inch floppy disks, CDs, DVDs, mini disks, and VHS. A large portion of the submissions are on electronic media, mostly floppy disks and mini disks.

The Chain archive's original order has been maintained with the exception of correcting alphabetical order and misspelled names, and all of the production and business material has been consolidated to the beginning of each issue. Chain came organized with an item level register that can be found in supplemental material.