Because institutional subscriptions and online access serve a larger audience, its estimated readership is over 400,000 people.

[4] Studies of methodological quality and reliability have found that some high-prestige journals including Science "publish significantly substandard structures", and overall "reliability of published research works in several fields may be decreasing with increasing journal rank".

[6] Science was founded by New York journalist John Michels in 1880 with financial support from Thomas Edison and later from Alexander Graham Bell.

[7][8] (Edison received favorable editorial treatment in return, without disclosure of the financial relationship, at a time when his reputation was suffering due to delays producing the promised commercially viable light bulb.

Alexander Graham Bell and Gardiner Greene Hubbard bought the magazine rights and hired young entomologist Samuel H. Scudder to resurrect the journal one year later.

[A 4] During the early part of the 20th century, important articles published in Science included papers on fruit fly genetics by Thomas Hunt Morgan, gravitational lensing by Albert Einstein, and spiral nebulae by Edwin Hubble.

[A 5] After Cattell's death in 1944, the journal lacked a consistent editorial presence until Graham DuShane became editor in 1956.

[14] Former Washington University in St. Louis Provost Holden Thorp was named editor-in-chief on Monday, August 19, 2019.

The journal also participates in initiatives that provide free or low-cost access to readers in developing countries, including HINARI, OARE, AGORA, and Scidev.net.