The magazine initially focused on investigating claims of the paranormal, but evolved and expanded to address other pseudoscientific topics that are antithetical to critical thinking and science.

CSICOP was more "firmly opposed to nonsense, more willing to go on the offensive and to attack supernatural claims" while Truzzi wanted science and pseudoscience to exist "happily together".

[3] Truzzi resigned to start The Zetetic Scholar and CSICOP changed the magazine's name to Skeptical Inquirer and hired Kendrick Frazier as the new editor.

In June 2023, Stephen Hupp, a professor in the Department of Psychology at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, was named as the magazine's editor.

[6][10] Writing for Scientific American in 1982, cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter said that the purpose of Skeptical Inquirer was to "combat nonsense" with articles in English that require no special knowledge or expertise, only "curiosity about truth".

[4][11] Loxton, writing in 2013 about the mission and goals of the skeptical movement, countered the idea that people no longer wanted to read about the paranormal, and recommended getting back to S.I.

While the general skeptic community believes that we should not waste more time debunking the paranormal, topics long ago discredited, Frazier says "millions of Americans accept them today".

[10] Even with such long odds against "an organized paranormal lobby, a magical marketing machine", Loxton implores skeptics to continue researching, writing and publishing: "We can't win any ultimate victory over superstition or ignorance, but we can do a lot of good if we fight hard enough.

High school teachers are among the most frequent writers of thank-you notes to the magazine's editors, but I have also seen enthusiastic letters from members of the clergy, radio talk-show hosts and people in many other professions.

"[17] Writing for The Brooklyn Rail, reviewer William Corwin stated that the artwork represented "this built-in confrontation between fact and fiction (which) was the basis of the Skeptical Inquirer itself and its playful willingness to consider the most unlikely phenomena.