Based on the official website information, the annual statistics and the third-party website data related to China's 219 free access science and technology museums, combined with the targeted questionnaires, the natural language processing and visualization technologies, using the five-factor model of the science communication, this paper makes a multi-source data analysis on the current status of the popular science influence of the S&T museums in China and explores the public popular science preference and the influencing factors. The following conclusions are drawn:The public is more interested in the scientific knowledge closely related to everyday life, and prefers to get information via the new media science popularization, such as the WeChat, the Weibo and the official websites; the public is more concerned with the fundamental facilities such as the environment, the displaying content and the provided services. Females pay more attention to the S&T museums and would like to express their opinion than males; and the public shows stronger willingness to visit the S&T museums around the important policy releasing time. As a result, the policy is considered to be the direct influencing factor of the popular science of the free access S&T museums.

S&T museums  /  free access  /  public preferences in science popularization