Science Software Quarterly was founded in 1984 by executive editor Diana Gabaldon, who at the time was an assistant professor in the Center for Environmental Studies at Arizona State University.

In 1987, the journal was acquired by a new publisher, John Wiley & Sons, who changed the title to Science Software.

"[2] SSQ helped acquaint scientists with the newest software applications on the market and provided evaluations from peers, who reviewed the products.

Articles of interest to scientists using computers were included in SSQ and Science Software on a wide range of topics, such as "Transferring BASIC programs From the Apple II to the IBM-PC."

Besides the software reviews, the backbone of SSQ and Science Software, each issue contained: The features section of the journal contained a variety of information each month, including: The Recent References section listed articles that might be of interest to scientists using desktop computers, from a wide variety of sources.