Your research can change the world.

Frontiers' author, article and journal impact metrics reflect the power of world-class research that is accessible to all. This is down to the hard work and dedication of our authors, reviewers, and editors who are pushing boundaries, accelerating new solutions, and helping all of us to live healthy lives on a healthy planet.

Impact overview

  • Frontiers ranks as the 5th most-cited publisher among the 20 largest publishers in 2020.

  • Frontiers journals rank consistently among the world’s most cited in their fields and in the top Impact Factor and CiteScore percentiles.

  • Frontiers articles have received more than:

    • 1 billion views and downloads from research and innovation hubs around the world
    • 1.6 million citations
    • 1.1 million mentions on social media
    • 45,000 pick-ups in the international press

 
 


Evaluating research


Researchers should be evaluated on the impact of their individual research - and not by the Impact Factor of the journals in which they publish. We are dedicated to building the tools and services that enable research communities to comprehensively measure the impact of articles, authors, and journals and have been the pioneers of numerous "alternative" metrics.

This started in 2008 with view and download counts added to all Frontiers articles. These article metrics expanded to include article citations via Pubmed and Scopus, reader demographics – including location, seniority and field of interest – and press and social media mentions via Altmetric.

We introduced author metrics in 2011 through our research network Loop, which aggregates article data for each author. Recognizing that a researcher is more than the sum of their articles and makes many more contributions to their research community, we added editorial and review contributions to Loop profiles in 2016.

To benchmark the reach, influence and quality of our journals, we measure and communicate a range of indicators of our journals’ impact, including Impact Factors, CiteScores, overall citation rates, aggregate views and downloads, press pick-ups, and social media mentions.

We fully support the responsible use of journal Impact Factors, other quantitative research metrics, and innovative ways for researcher evaluation, as proposed by the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA, to which we are a signatory), the Leiden Manifesto, the Metric Tide for Responsible Metrics and the European Commission's Expert Group on Altmetrics.