The Best Science Fiction of the Year 1 is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Terry Carr, the initial volume in a series of sixteen.

The Carr title was first published in paperback as The Best Science Fiction of the Year by Ballantine Books in July 1972.

It was reissued by Ballantine in April 1976 as The Best Science Fiction of the Year #1, in keeping with the numerical designations of subsequent volumes in the series.

The book collects eleven novellas, novelettes and short stories by various science fiction authors, with an introduction by Carr.

Most of the stories were previously published in 1971 in the magazines If, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Playboy, and the anthologies Infinity Two, New Dimensions 1, Four Futures, New Worlds Quarterly 2, Universe 1, and Quark/4.