Science Advances

Science Advances. It is a prominent peer-reviewed, open-access scientific journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Launched in early 2015, it was established to provide a high-quality, selective publication outlet for interdisciplinary research across the natural and social sciences. The journal operates under the leadership of Editor-in-Chief Holden Thorp and aims to complement the society's flagship publication, *Science*.

History and background

The journal was conceived by the American Association for the Advancement of Science to address the growing demand for reputable open-access venues capable of handling the increasing volume of interdisciplinary scientific submissions. Its establishment was formally announced in 2014, with the first articles published in February 2015. The launch was part of a strategic expansion by AAAS, following the success of Science Signaling and Science Translational Medicine, to broaden the dissemination of research beyond the highly selective confines of *Science*. Key figures in its development included then-AAAS CEO Alan I. Leshner and Publisher Kent Anderson, who envisioned a journal that would leverage the robust peer-review infrastructure of *Science* while embracing the Creative Commons licensing model. The inaugural editorial board featured prominent scientists like Michele K. Evans and Jeremy Berg, setting a precedent for its multidisciplinary scope.

Publication details

*Science Advances* is published weekly online by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, with all content freely available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license (CC BY-NC). The journal does not produce a print edition, operating exclusively in a digital format to facilitate rapid dissemination. It utilizes the same online platform, HighWire Press, as other AAAS journals, ensuring robust technical infrastructure for authors and readers. The publication covers a vast array of topics, including physics, chemistry, biological sciences, earth sciences, and social sciences, with articles typically presented in a standard research article format alongside perspectives and reviews. Operational aspects, including manuscript submission and tracking, are managed through an integrated system shared with *Science*, streamlining the workflow for the editorial staff based in Washington, D.C. and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Editorial policies and scope

The journal maintains rigorous editorial standards, employing a selective peer-review process modeled on that of *Science* but tailored for a broader interdisciplinary audience. The editorial board, led by Holden Thorp, includes distinguished researchers from institutions like Harvard University, Stanford University, and the Max Planck Society. Its scope explicitly welcomes convergent research that bridges traditional disciplines, such as work integrating neuroscience with artificial intelligence or climate science with economics. All research must meet high standards for methodological rigor, data availability, and ethical compliance, with particular emphasis on transparency in reporting. The journal actively promotes reproducibility and open science, requiring authors to deposit data in public repositories such as Dryad or Figshare and encouraging the sharing of code via platforms like GitHub.

Abstracting and indexing

The journal is comprehensively abstracted and indexed in all major scientific databases, ensuring wide discoverability. It is covered by services including the Science Citation Index Expanded, Scopus, PubMed Central, Chemical Abstracts Service, and the Astrophysics Data System. Its inclusion in the Web of Science and Journal Citation Reports allows for the calculation of its Impact factor, which was 14.957 for the 2022 citation year. This indexing status places it among the top multidisciplinary open-access journals, alongside publications like Nature Communications and *PNAS*. Coverage in MEDLINE and PubMed ensures high visibility for life sciences research, while its presence in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) certifies its adherence to open-access publishing standards.

Impact and reception

Since its launch, *Science Advances* has rapidly gained a strong reputation within the global scientific community, recognized for publishing high-impact, innovative research. Its Impact factor consistently ranks it as one of the most influential open-access journals globally. Published research has frequently been featured in major media outlets, including The New York Times, BBC News, and National Public Radio, amplifying its societal impact. The journal has been instrumental in disseminating groundbreaking studies in fields like CRISPR gene editing, exoplanet discovery, and materials science, often in collaboration with leading research institutions such as MIT, the University of California, Berkeley, and the CERN. Its commitment to open access has been praised by advocates of the Open access movement, though, like many selective journals, it has faced discussions regarding article processing charges and its place within the broader scholarly publishing ecosystem dominated by entities like Elsevier and Springer Nature.

Category:Academic journals published in the United States Category:Multidisciplinary scientific journals Category:Open access journals Category:Publications established in 2015 Category:American Association for the Advancement of Science academic journals