In the first issue he sought papers ranging from studies on "the analysis of meaning, definition, symbolism," in scientific theories to those on "the nature and formulation of theoretical principles" and "in the function and significance of science within various contexts.

"[2] Its initial editorial board comprised Eric Temple Bell, Albert Blumberg, Rudolf Carnap, Morris Raphael Cohen, W.W. Cook, Herbert Feigl, Karl S. Lashley, Henry Margenau, Hermann Joseph Muller, Susan Stebbing, Dirk Jan Struik and Alexander Weinstein.

[3] Subsequent editors include Kenneth F. Schaffner, the philosopher and medical doctor, and Philip Kitcher.

Currently the editor-in-chief is James Owen Weatherall and the editorial office is hosted by the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the University of California, Irvine.

Philosophy of Science was originally published in 1934 by The Williams and Wilkins Company of Baltimore, Maryland, which upon the death of Malisoff offered to bear the occasional losses of the journal and to share fifty-fifty in its profits.