and reliability have found that some high-prestige journals including Science "publish significantly substandard structures", and overall "reliability of published research works in several fields may be decreasing with increasing journal rank".

Although it is the journal of the AAAS, membership in the AAAS is not required to publish in Science. Papers are accepted from authors around the world. Competition to publish in Science is very intense, as an article published in such a highly cited journal can lead to attention and career advancement