Our impact
Journal Impact Factors and CiteScores
2021 highlights
Following the 2021 release of the Web of Science Group's Journal Citation Reports (JCR) and Scopus' CiteScore, we have 46 journals with a Journal Impact Factor and 57 journals with a CiteScore.
In the latest Journal Citation Reports
- 46 Frontiers journals have a 2020 Journal Impact Factor.
- 96% of journals increased their Impact Factor from 2019.
- 23 journals (50%) are in the top 25% in at least one category, an increase of 9 journals over the previous year.
- 4 journals are in the top 10% in at least one category, an increase of 3 journals over the previous year.
In the latest CiteScore edition
- 57 Frontiers journals have a 2020 CiteScore.
- 73% of journals increased their CiteScore from 2019.
- 22 journals (39%) are in the top 25% in at least one category, an increase of 5 journals over the previous year
Journal Impact Factors and CiteScores
Impact Factor percentiles
Frontiers journals improved their Journal Impact Factor ranking in 30 out of 39 categories.
Publisher impact
Frontiers ranks as the 3rd most-cited publisher among the 20 largest publishers with an average of 4.8 citations per article, an increase from 3.9 citations in the previous year.
Frontiers’ articles have been viewed and downloaded more than 1.4 billion times and cited more than 2.2 million times by research and innovation hubs around the world.
Frontiers’ articles achieve international visibility with more than 80,000 news mentions and 1.6 million social media mentions.
Journal citations
Frontiers journals rank among the most influential in their academic fields based on total citations - including most cited in neurosciences, immunology, microbiology, plant science and psychology.
Evaluating research
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.