[1] It was founded in 1973 at Indiana State University by the late English professor Dr. R. D. Mullen, where it remained for approximately five years.

SFS is refereed, selective (its acceptance rate averages around 37%), and its 900+ subscription base includes institutions and individuals in the US and Canada and more than 30 foreign countries.

[4] SFS has also been reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement, where Paul Kincaid compared the world's three principal learned journals that focus on science fiction: Science Fiction Studies, Extrapolation (published at the University of Texas, Brownsville), and Foundation (published at the University of Liverpool, UK).

He concluded that "Science Fiction Studies ... has always been resolutely academic, the articles always peer-reviewed ..., and with an uncompromising approach to the complexities of critical theory".

[2] A representative issue contains 5–8 articles ranging in length from 5,000 to 15,000 words, 2–3 review-essays, two dozen book reviews covering scholarly works, plus a substantial Notes and Correspondence section.