自1867年創刊以來，《美國博物學家》一直保持著其在生態學、進化論和行為研究領域的世界一流同行評議刊物的地位。它的目標是發表讀者廣泛感興趣的文章，提出新的重大問題，引入新的主題，發展概念統一，改變人們的思維方式。AmNat強調復雜的方法和創新的理論綜合——所有這些都是為了推進有機進化和其他廣泛的生物學原理的知識。

Since its inception in 1867, The American Naturalist has maintained its position as one of the world's premier peer-reviewed publications in ecology, evolution, and behavior research. Its goals are to publish articles that are of broad interest to the readership, pose new and significant problems, introduce novel subjects, develop conceptual unification, and change the way people think. AmNat emphasizes sophisticated methodologies and innovative theoretical syntheses—all in an effort to advance the knowledge of organic evolution and other broad biological principles.