雖然科學方法自古便不斷發展，但現代科學方法卻是始自伊斯蘭科學家，海什木在大約西元1000年左右，運用實驗的經驗法則寫出了一本關於光學的著作《光學書（英语：Book of Optics）》。然而，現代科學方法在13世紀的歐洲由大學經院哲學的學者所發起科學革命時，方才算發展完全[1]，到了16世紀及17世紀早期的發展高峰，現代科學方法的廣泛應用更引領了知識的全面重估。科學方法的發展被某些人（尤其是科學哲學家及實證科學家）認為是太過於基礎而重要的，認為早先對於自然的探索只不過是前科學（pre-scientific），現代科學方法才被他們認為是真正的科學。習慣上，科學史學家仍舊認定早先的科學探索也包含於廣大而充足的科學範疇之中。[2]
研究科學史大都在從事回答：「科學是什麽？」和「它如何運作」，以及它是否顯示出大規模的形式和趨勢。特別是科學社會學（sociology of science）專注于科學家工作的方法，尤其注重觀察在他們「產生」和「建立」科學知識时的方法。自1960年代以來，科學研究（science studies）一個共同的趨勢，就在強調科學知識的「人的成分」，而不再強調科學資料是自顯的、無關價值和前因後果的這個觀點。
^W. C. Dampier Wetham, Science, inEncyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. (New York: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc, 1911）; M. Clagett,Greek Science in Antiquity (New York: Collier Books, 1955); D. Pingree, Hellenophilia versus the History of Science,Isis83, 559 (1982);Pat Munday, entry "History of Science,"New Dictionary of the History of Ideas (Charles Scribner's Sons, 2005).
^Francesca Bray (1984),Science and Civilisation in ChinaVI.2Agriculture pp 299, 453 writes thatteosinte, 'the father of corn' helps the success and vitality of corn when planted between the rows of its 'children',maize.
^Hoskin, Michael. Tombs, Temples and their Orientations: a New Perspective on Mediterranean Prehistory. Bognor Regis, UK: Ocarina Books. 2001.ISBN 0-9540867-1-6.
^See Homer'sOdyssey4.227–232 （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） '[The Egyptians] are of the race ofPaeeon [(physician to the gods)]'
Joseph Needham and Lu Gwei-djen (1974),V.2 Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Magisteries of Gold and Immortality
Joseph Needham, Ho Ping-Yu [Ho Peng-Yoke], and Lu Gwei-djen (1976),V.3 Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Historical Survey, from Cinnabar Elixirs to Synthetic Insulin
Joseph Needham, Lu Gwei-djen, and Nathan Sivin (1980),V.4Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Apparatus and Theory
Joseph Needham and Lu Gwei-djen (1983),V.5 Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Physiological Alchemy
^Paul Hoffman,The man who loved only numbers: the story of Paul Erdös and the search for mathematical truth, (New York: Hyperion), 1998, p.187.ISBN 978-0-7868-6362-4
^The Odyssey. Translated byWalter Shewring.Oxford University Press. May 1998: 40.ISBN 0-19-283375-8.In Egypt, more than in other lands, the bounteous earth yields a wealth of drugs, healthful and baneful side by side; and every man there is a physician; the rest of the world has no such skill, for these are all of the family of Paeon.Authors list列表中的|first1=缺少|last1= (帮助)
^Lloyd, G. E. R. "The development of empirical research", in hisMagic, Reason and Experience: Studies in the Origin and Development of Greek Science.
^Sambursky 1974，第3,37頁 harvnb模板錯誤: 無指向目標: CITEREFSambursky1974 (幫助) called the pre-Socratics the transition frommythos tologos
^F. M. Cornford,Principium Sapientiae: The Origins of Greek Philosophical Thought, (Gloucester, Mass., Peter Smith, 1971), p. 159.
^Arieti, James A.Philosophy in the ancient world: an introduction, p. 45[1] （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. 386 pages.ISBN 978-0-7425-3329-5.
^Bisht, R. S. Excavations at Banawali: 1974-77. Possehl, Gregory L. (ed.) (编). Harappan Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective. New Delhi: Oxford and IBH Publishing Co. 1982: 113–124.
^Mainak Kumar Bose,Late Classical India, A. Mukherjee & Co., 1988, p. 277.
^Ifrah, Georges. 1999.The Universal History of Numbers : From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer, Wiley.ISBN 978-0-471-37568-5.
^O'Connor, J.J. and E.F. Robertson. 2000.'Indian Numerals' （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）,MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St. Andrews, Scotland.
^George G. Joseph（1991）.The crest of the peacock.London.
^C. S. Smith, A History of Metallography, University Press, Chicago（1960）; Juleff 1996; Srinivasan, Sharda and Srinivasa Rangnathan 2004
^Needham, Joseph (1986).Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd. Page 208.
^Linda E. Voigts, "Anglo-Saxon Plant Remedies and the Anglo-Saxons",Isis, 70 (1979): 250-268; reprinted in Michael H. Shank,The Scientific Enterprise in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr., 2000, pp. 163-181.ISBN 978-0-226-74951-8.
^Faith Wallis,Bede: The Reckoning of Time, Liverpool: Liverpool Univ. Pr., 2004, pp. xviii-xxxiv.ISBN 978-0-85323-693-1.
^Robert Briffault（1928）.The Making of Humanity, p. 190-202. G. Allen & Unwin Ltd.
^Sameen Ahmed Khan, Arab Origins of the Discovery of the Refraction of Light;Roshdi Hifni Rashed (Picture) Awarded the 2007 King Faisal International Prize, Optics & Photonics News (OPN, Logo), Vol. 18, No. 10, pp. 22-23 (October 2007).
^Bradley Steffens (2006),Ibn al-Haytham: First Scientist, Morgan Reynolds Publishing,ISBN 978-1-59935-024-0.
Joseph Needham.Science and Civilisation in China. Multiple volumes (1954–2004).
Bertrand Russell（1945）.A History of Western Philosophy: And Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. New York:Simon and Schuster.
John L. Heilbron, ed.,The Oxford companion to the history of modern science (New York:Oxford University Press, 2003).
George Rousseau and Roy Porter, eds.,The Ferment of Knowledge: Studies in the Historiography of Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980).ISBN 978-0-521-22599-1
Caroline L. Herzenberg. 1986.Women Scientists from Antiquity to the Present Locust Hill PressISBN 978-0-933951-01-3
