[3] The Society focuses on reproduction in both people and animals, including research from the areas of medicine, agriculture and basic biology.
[4][5] It is credited with being the first organization to focus on "the full panoply of reproductive phenomena"[6]: 145 and is listed as a major professional association publishing reproductive research[6]: 140–141 and a major organization in American animal agriculture.
[11][9] He organized SSR's first annual meeting, which was held in August 1968 at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.
[12] As of 2021, the Society's president was Troy L. Ott, Professor of Reproductive Physiology at Pennsylvania State University's Department of Animal Science.
[14] Schwartz credits SSR as being more willing than older scientific societies to admit women as participants in its administration, board and program planning.