Does sciencemag.org block AI crawlers?
Blocks AI training and AI answers
sciencemag.org blocks both AI training crawlers and AI answer crawlers in its robots.txt.
Checked from sciencemag.org/robots.txt. Robots rules change; the live file is the source of truth.
- AI crawlers blocked
- 5 of 12
- AI bots named in robots.txt
- 6
- llms.txt
- Not found
- Popularity
- Tranco top 2,000 (#1,923)
Can AI assistants cite sciencemag.org?
- ChatGPT search: its search crawler is blocked
- Claude: its search crawlers may read the site
- Perplexity: its search crawlers may read the site
sciencemag.org opts out of AI training by OpenAI, Google, Apple, Common Crawl. Training crawlers and answer crawlers are separate: blocking training doesn't by itself remove a site from AI answers.
AI crawler access, bot by bot
| Crawler | Used for | Status on sciencemag.org |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBotOpenAI | AI training | Blocked |
| OAI-SearchBotOpenAI | AI answers | Some paths restricted |
| ChatGPT-UserOpenAI | AI answers | Blocked |
| ClaudeBotAnthropic | AI training | Some paths restricted |
| Claude-SearchBotAnthropic | AI answers | Some paths restricted |
| Claude-UserAnthropic | AI answers | Some paths restricted |
| PerplexityBotPerplexity | AI answers | Some paths restricted |
| Google-ExtendedGoogle | AI training | Blocked |
| Applebot-ExtendedApple | AI training | Blocked |
| CCBotCommon Crawl | AI training | Blocked |
| BytespiderByteDance | AI training | Some paths restricted |
| Meta-ExternalAgentMeta | AI training | Some paths restricted |
How sciencemag.org compares
- 19% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block GPTBot; sciencemag.org is one of them.
- 18% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block ClaudeBot; sciencemag.org does not.
- 14% of the 1,278 popular sites we checked block PerplexityBot; sciencemag.org does not.
- Among 155 sites of similar popularity, 23% block at least one AI crawler.
The robots.txt rules that apply to AI crawlers
User-agent: * Disallow: /action Disallow: /help Disallow: /search Disallow: /feedback Disallow: /page/account-confirmation-thanks Disallow: /media Disallow: /medical-research Disallow: /servlet/linkout Disallow: /na101/ Disallow: /na101v1/ Disallow: /na102/ Disallow: /doi/mlt/ Disallow: /pb/widgets Disallow: /author Allow: /action/showFeed Allow: /action/showJournal Allow: /action/showPublications Allow: /action/showXml Allow: /action/showTopic Allow: /action/showBook Allow: /action/showCoverImage Allow: /action/downloadSupplement User-agent: Google-Extended Disallow: / User-agent: anthropic-ai Disallow: / User-agent: GPTBot Disallow: / User-agent: GPTBot Disallow: / User-agent: ChatGPT-User Disallow: / User-agent: CCBot Disallow: / User-agent: Applebot-Extended Disallow: /
Excerpt: only groups for all user-agents (*) or named AI crawlers, up to 40 rules per group.
Sites with a similar AI policy
Does sciencemag.org block GPTBot?
Yes. As of Oct 2, 2026, sciencemag.org's robots.txt disallows GPTBot, OpenAI's training crawler.
Can ChatGPT search show results from sciencemag.org?
Its robots.txt blocks a ChatGPT search crawler, so ChatGPT search is unlikely to read or cite those pages.
Does sciencemag.org have an llms.txt file?
We didn't find a valid llms.txt at sciencemag.org/llms.txt when we checked.
Data: sciencemag.org's public robots.txt and llms.txt, fetched by AskableHQ. Popularity rank from the Tranco list (ID Y83YG). Methodology.