Coming soon: 2017 analysis based on the most recent Journal Citation Reports by Clarivate Analytics (formerly published by Thomson Reuters).

Frontiers in Immunology, launched in 2010, received its first official Impact Factor of 5.695 in 2016. In just 5 years, it became the largest and the most cited open-access journal in Immunology, and the 7th most cited among all journals in Immunology.

Impact Factor (IF), defined as the total number of citations in a given year divided by the number of citable articles over the previous two-year period, is the most commonly accepted metric of journal quality (but not of an individual paper or researcher). It was formally established by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) in 1975. As the IF can be heavily skewed by a few highly-cited papers, total citations generated over the same two-year period provide a more accurate indication of the overall  influence or impact of the articles published by a journal in a field. Frontiers is a pioneer in the use of article-level and author-level metrics and encourages every author to use these to track the development of his or her readership on a more granular level.

Analysis within the category of Immunology

There are 150 journals listed in the category of Immunology in the 2015 Journal Citation Reports (JCR) provided by Thomson Reuters in 2016. Frontiers in Immunology and Frontiers in cellular and Infection Microbiology are two of the 21 open-access journals.

Below are the results of our comparative analysis of these journals on the article volume published, IF and total number of citations achieved in 2015, based on articles published over the two preceding years, 2013 and 2014. (Click here to see the volume, IF and number of citations of other Frontiers journals).

Total citations among all open-access journals in Immunology

Figure 1. Total number of citations in 2015 for articles published in 2013 and 2014, ranked for all (21) open-access journals listed in the Immunology JCR category. Plot shows ranks for top 20 most-cited open-access journals, where (in red) Frontiers in Immunology ranks #1 most-cited, and Frontiers in cellular and Infection Microbiology ranks #5 most-cited. The journal analysis is based on the 2015 Journal Citation Reports published by Thomson Reuters in 2016.

Total citations among all journals in Immunology

Figure 2. Total number of citations in 2015 for articles published in 2013 and 2014, ranked for all  (150) journals (open-access and subscription) listed in the Immunology JCR category. Plot shows the ranks for the top 20 most-cited journals, where (in red) Frontiers in Immunology ranks #7 most-cited (top 2%). Frontiers in cellular and Infection Microbiology ranks #42 most-cited (not shown). The journal analysis is based on the 2015 Journal Citation Reports published by Thomson Reuters in 2016.

Relationship between volume and Impact Factor for all open-access journals in Immunology

Figure 3. Volume of citable items in 2015, plotted against the 2015 journal Impact Factor, analysed for 21 open-access journals listed in the Immunology  JCR category. Plot shows 16 open-access journals in the category that had Total Number of Citation disclosed,  with (in red) Frontiers in Immunology and Frontiers in cellular and Infection Microbiology. D__ot size is proportional to the total number of citations received during the citation-counting period. The journal analysis is based on the 2015 Journal Citation Reports published by Thomson Reuters in 2016.

Relationship between volume and Impact Factor for all journals in Immunology

Figure 4. Volume of citable items in 2015, plotted against the 2015 journal Impact Factor, for all 150 journals (open-access  and subscription) listed in the Immunology  JCR category. Plot shows all journals in the category, with (in red) Frontiers in Immunology and Frontiers in cellular and Infection Microbiology. D__ot size is proportional to the total number of citations received during the citation-counting period. The journal analysis is based on the 2015 Journal Citation Reports published by Thomson Reuters in 2016.__ 

Summary

Amongst the 21 open-access journals listed in the category of Immunology, Frontiers in Immunology:

• Is the #1 most cited journal in 2015 based on articles published in 2013 and 2014.

• Is the largest open-access journal in Immunology – 4 times larger than the average article volume in open-access journals in Immunology.

• Ranks #3 on Impact Factor – 1.9 times the average in open-access journals in Immunology.

Amongst all of the 150 journals listed in the category of Immunology, Frontiers in Immunology is:

• The #7 most cited journal in 2015 based on articles published in 2013 and 2014.

• The world’s #4 largest Immunology journal overall – 3.8 times larger than the average article volume in all journals in Immunology.

• In the top 16% of Impact Factors.

Further significance

The results are more significant if one considers that:

1. Frontiers does not engineer the impact factor by setting a rejection rate, and instead operates an impact neutral peer-review process.

2. Frontiers in Immunology is only 6 years old and the results represented here are based on articles published between 2013-2014 (its 3rd and 4th year in existence).

Key to success

At Frontiers, we publish all articles that are scientifically correct. We engineered the Collaborative Peer Review process with a review mandate focused on enhancing article quality by means of rigorous and constructive feedback from expert reviewers, as well as quick and direct interactions between authors, reviewers and the editor. This is enabled by our unique review forum platform, and we enhance transparency by acknowledging reviewers and editors on the published articles. The analysis presented here indicates that the impact neutral Collaborative Peer Review conducted in Frontiers, together with an outstanding editorial board, has become a powerful model for publishing quality academic papers at scale.

All of this is only possible with a stellar editorial board of researchers (see infographic). Frontiers congratulates the Editors for Frontiers in Immunology (see full board) and the Frontiers Journal Management team for this spectacular achievement.

Frontiers in Immunology fact sheet (as of June 2016):

The same analysis of volume, IF and number of citations of other Frontiers journals can be found here.

Chief Editors (see full board):

Luigi Daniele Notarangelo, Harvard Medical School, USA| Field Chief Editor as of 13th of July 2016, Frontiers in Immunology, and Specialty Chief Editor, Primary Immunodeficiencies

Oreste Acuto, University of Oxford, United Kingdom | Specialty Chief Editor, T Cell Biology

Josep Bassaganya-Riera, Virginia Tech Blacksburg, USA | Specialty Chief Editor, Nutritional Immunology

Nina Bhardwaj, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, USA | Specialty Chief Editor, HIV and AIDS

Yenan Bryceson, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden | Specialty Chief Editor, NK Cell Biology

John B.F. de Wit, The University of New South Wales, Australia | Specialty Chief Editor, HIV and AIDS

Charles Dinarello, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, USA | Specialty Chief Editor, Inflammation

Denise Doolan, Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Australia | Specialty Chief Editor, Immunotherapies and Vaccines

Pietro Ghezzi, Brighton & Sussex Medical School, United Kingdom | Specialty Chief Editor, Inflammation

Francesca Granucci, University of Milano-Bicocca and Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Italy | Specialty Chief Editor, Molecular Innate Immunity

Hans-Peter Hartung, Heinrich-Heine University Duesseldorf, Germany | Specialty Chief Editor, Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology

Imtiaz Ahmed Khan, George Washington University, USA | Specialty Chief Editor, Microbial Immunology

Nils Yngve Lycke, University of Gothenburg, Sweden | Specialty Chief Editor,Mucosal Immunity

Ian Marriott, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA | Specialty Chief Editor, Microbial Immunology

Eric Meffre, Yale University School of Medicine,USA | Specialty Chief Editor, Primary Immunodeficiencies

Frank Miedema, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Netherlands | Specialty Chief Editor, HIV and AIDS

Bernhard Moser, Cardiff University, United Kingdom | Specialty Chief Editor,Chemoattractants

Effie Wang Petersdorf, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and University of Washington School of Medicine, USA | Specialty Chief Editor, Alloimmunity and Transplantation

Ellis L Reinherz, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, USA | Specialty Chief Editor,T Cell Biology

Thomas L Rothstein, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, USA | Specialty Chief Editor, B Cell Biology

Catherine Sautes-Fridman, Paris Descartes University, France | Specialty Chief Editor, Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy

Ulrich Emil Schaible, Priority Area Infections Research Center, Center BorstelHabilitation, Germany | Specialty Chief Editor, Microbial Immunology

Susan Swain, University of Massachusetts Medical School, USA | Specialty Chief Editor, Immunological Memory

Antoine Toubert,INSERM, France | Specialty Chief Editor, Alloimmunity and Transplantation

Willem Van Eden, Utrecht University, Netherlands | Specialty Chief Editor, Nutritional Immunology

Hermann Wagner, Technical University Munich (TUM), Germany | Specialty Chief Editor, Antigen Presenting Cell Biology

Herman Waldmann, University of Oxford, United Kingdom | Specialty Chief Editor, Immunological Tolerance

A special thanks goes to:

Kendall Smith, Weill Medical College of Cornell University | Founding and Former Field Chief Editor,  Frontiers in Immunology

Christian Kurts, University of Bonn, Germany | Specialty Chief Editor, Antigen Presenting Cell Biology 

Christine Anne Biron, Brown University, USA | Specialty Chief Editor, Microbial Immunology

Claudia Kemper, King’s College London, UK | Specialty Chief Editor, Molecular Innate Immunity

Wolf Hervé Fridman, University Paris Descartes, France | Specialty Chief Editor,  Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy

Eric Vivier, Aix Marseille University, NK Cell Biology