Outlet profile

Science

U.S. scientific establishment; center-left on science policy

Owned byPublished by AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science), a nonprofit scientific society. Science Advances, Science Translational Medicine and other sister journals are also AAAS titles. Holden Thorp has been editor-in-chief since 2019.

FundingSubscriptions and institutional site licenses, membership dues, advertising (including job and product ads), and open-access publication fees for its sister journals. Grants and donations also support AAAS. It has no government or corporate owner.

On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

Science began in 1880, backed by Thomas Edison, and AAAS took it over in 1900. It is one of the world's most cited general science journals, and its research papers go through peer review. Its news section has professional journalists who cover science policy, funding and research misconduct, separately from the research papers. Holden Thorp, a chemist and former University of North Carolina chancellor, became editor-in-chief in 2019. Under Thorp, Science has published frequent editorials, including some that take explicit political positions. Since January 2025, these editorials and news reports have focused on cuts and disruption at the NIH, NSF, NASA and other agencies, grant terminations, pressure on universities, and the effect on the scientific workforce. Journal critics say the editorials reflect the views of the scientific establishment, and they have raised concerns about publishing pressures and about reproducibility. Science has also run corrections and retractions, among them a 2010 arsenic-life paper that drew heavy criticism. Its peer-reviewed research papers and its advocacy-leaning editorials should be treated separately.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-10-31; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

← Back to track record