The purpose of the Social Science History Association is to improve the quality of historical explanation in every manner possible, particularly by encouraging the selective use and adaptation in historical teaching and research of relevant theories and methods from related disciplines, especially the social sciences. The Association will seek to achieve this purpose through various means. It will:
- Publish Social Science History in order to encourage and disseminate high quality social science history devoted to substantive research and methodological concerns.
- Organize conferences to bring together like-minded historians and other social scientists with interdisciplinary interests.
- Assist and support the work of organizations in activities such as the operation of training programs to enable historians and other social scientists to learn social science methodology, or methods for the retrieval and archiving of quantitative historical data.
- Work to achieve maximum freedom of access for scholars to data of particular interest to social science historians.
- Take any other appropriate action which the members of the Association believe necessary to achieve the above objectives.