There is also an open issue regarding improving the docs on this topic:
https://github.com/spf13/hugo/issues/2827
This commit adds a dedicated page explaining how _index.md files fit
into Hugo's template hierarchy, what they can contain and how to render
content from them onto the respective list/terms/home page.
What this commit doesn't do is address confusion over former behaviour
of the 'index.md' files (note the lack of _). Instead it focuses on
clarifying the new behaviour in the hope of rendering the old moot.