History
Science was founded by English-born New York journalist John Michels in 1880 with financial support from Thomas Edison and later from Alexander Graham Bell. (Edison received favorable editorial treatment in return, without disclosure of the financial relationship, at a time when his reputation was suffering due to delays producing the promised commercially viable light bulb.) However, the journal never gained enough subscribers to succeed and ended publication in March 1882. Alexander Graham Bell and Gardiner Greene Hubbard bought the magazine rights and hired young entomologist Samuel H. Scudder to resurrect the journal one year later. They had some success while covering the meetings of prominent American scientific societies, including the AAAS. However, by 1894, Science was again in financial difficulty and was sold to psychologist James McKeen Cattell for $500 (equivalent to $18,610 in 2025).
In an agreement worked out by Cattell and AAAS secretary Leland O. Howard, Science became the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1900. During the early part of the 20th century, important articles published in Science included papers on fruit fly genetics by Thomas Hunt Morgan, gravitational lensing by Albert Einstein, and spiral nebulae by Edwin Hubble. After Cattell died in 1944, the ownership of the journal was transferred to the AAAS.
After Cattell's death in 1944, the journal lacked a consistent editorial presence until Graham DuShane became editor in 1956. In 1958, under DuShane's leadership, Science absorbed The Scientific Monthly, thus increasing the journal's circulation by over 62% from 38,000 to more than 61,000. Physicist Philip Abelson, a co-discoverer of neptunium, served as editor from 1962 to 1984. Under Abelson the efficiency of the review process was improved and the publication practices were brought up to date. During this time, papers on the Apollo program missions and some of the earliest reports on AIDS were published.
Biochemist Daniel E. Koshland Jr. served as editor from 1985 until 1995. From 1995 until 2000, neuroscientist Floyd E. Bloom held that position. Biologist Donald Kennedy became the editor of Science in 2000. Biochemist Bruce Alberts took his place in March 2008. Geophysicist Marcia McNutt became editor-in-chief in June 2013. During her tenure the family of journals expanded to include Science Robotics and Science Immunology, and open access publishing with Science Advances. Jeremy M. Berg became editor-in-chief on July 1, 2016. Former Washington University in St. Louis Provost Holden Thorp was named editor-in-chief on Monday, August 19, 2019.
In February 2001, draft results of the human genome were simultaneously published by Nature and Science with Science publishing the Celera Genomics paper and Nature publishing the publicly funded Human Genome Project. In 2007, Science (together with Nature) received the Prince of Asturias Award for Communications and Humanity. In 2015, Rush D. Holt Jr., chief executive officer of the AAAS and executive publisher of Science, stated that the journal was becoming increasingly international: "[I]nternationally co-authored papers are now the norm—they represent almost 60 percent of the papers. In 1992, it was slightly less than 20 percent."
