There is an increasing interest in conducting reading-related studies in science education using a self-regulated learning (SRL) lens. This exploration involved a content analysis of 34 articles (38 studies in total) in highly regarded journals from 1998 to 2012 using an SRL interpretative framework to reveal critical features and relationships in the science reading research. A cross-study comparison revealed that most researchers had applied mixed methods approaches (68%), used instructional cues as an intervention (47%), and collected both performance and process data (50%). The summary figures indicated that a variety of instructional cues had different effects on science reading and SRL strategies and that there were interactions between task conditions and cognitive conditions. Customized or personalized metacognitive prompts are especially useful for comprehending hypertexts and conducting online information searches. Based on the findings, it was suggested that future research should apply the COPES model for SRL to design instructional cues for learners and to investigate how external task conditions influence cognitive conditions, self-regulated processes, and reading performance across different science text genres.