Frontiers in Pharmacology is an interdisciplinary journal that publishes research on the interactions between drugs and living beings to prevent and cure human disease.

Led by Field Chief Editor Heike Wulff (University of California, Davis, US), Frontiers in Pharmacology explores basic and clinical pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, pharmacy, and toxicology to clarify the fundamental processes of disease treatment and drug effects. Indexed in PubMed Central (PMC), Scopus, Web of Science (SCIE), and the DOAJ, the journal welcomes academic, industrial, and clinical work focused on pharmacology.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

cardiovascular and smooth muscle pharmacology
drug metabolism and transport
drugs outcomes research and policies
ELSI in science and genetics
ethnopharmacology
experimental pharmacology and drug discovery
gastrointestinal and hepatic pharmacology
inflammation pharmacology
integrative and regenerative pharmacology
neuropharmacology
obstetric and pediatric pharmacology
pharmacoepidemiology
pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics
pharmacology of anti-cancer drugs
pharmacology of infectious diseases
pharmacology of ion channels and channelopathies
predictive toxicology
renal pharmacology
respiratory pharmacology
translational pharmacology.

All submissions to the journal involving natural products, including plant extracts or preparations, must adhere to 'The Four Pillars of Ethnopharmacology' to be considered for peer review, regardless of the specialty section, as a baseline standard for sample characterization. These are a set of mandatory guidelines designed to maintain the scientific, cultural, and ethical integrity of the Journal, and describe what the leading journals in the field consider as the basic aspects of good research (full ConPhyMP statement available here, ConPhyMP statement overview here, and GA-tool here). Please refer to the FULL VERSION of these guidelines before submitting a manuscript to the journal.

To be considered for publication in Frontiers in Pharmacology, studies incorporating complementary or alternative medicine must be based on a set of data linked to local or traditional uses that can be evaluated pharmacologically. A clear and plausible set of pharmacological data must be generated in these studies. Similarly, the journal endorses protocols including a minimum of 2 cell-lines in vitro as an evidential basis to demonstrate proposed anti-cancer effects in all relevant studies submitted to all specialty sections in the journal.

Isolated data mining studies using disproportionality analyses of databases containing spontaneously reported adverse events, frequently lead to misinterpretation due to various reporting biases, lack of structured control, and insufficient demographic details. Presenting such analyses in isolation typically does not yield clinically actionable safety findings without the broader context of a comprehensive signal evaluation. To ensure rigor and relevance, all submissions to the journal must be complemented by a proper systematic review and/or thorough analyses of reported cases, and adhere to the READUS-PV guidelines (The Reporting of a Disproportionality Analysis for Drug Safety Signal Detection Using Individual Case Safety Reports in PharmacoVigilance). Authors are expected to ensure compliance with the corresponding checklist before proceeding with submission to the journal. Full publication of the READUS-PV guidelines is available here.

Frontiers’ journals require that manuscripts primarily comprising computational studies of public data, such as NHANES or Mendelian Randomization studies, must include appropriate validation. Please refer to the Frontiers Standards for research methodology policy, for more information. Manuscripts not adhering to these standards will not be considered.

Further unique criteria for the conception and review of submissions may apply, where appropriate, for individual specialty sections.

The journal welcomes submissions that support and advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), notably the SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being.

Manuscripts that focus solely on clinical trials, patient management, or conventional therapies without a focus on pharmacological research are not suitable for publication in this journal. Additionally, studies that are purely statistical or predictive in nature, without providing novel insights into pharmacological mechanisms or drug development, are not within the scope of this journal.

Frontiers in Pharmacology is committed to advancing developments in the field of pharmacological discoveries by allowing unrestricted access to articles and communicating scientific knowledge to researchers and the public alike, to enable the scientific breakthroughs of the future.

Ethics Information

Research involving human subjects should comply with the ethical guidelines outlined in the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki.

Similarly, authors are required to specify the institutional and national standards adhered to for the care and use of laboratory animals. Transparent and accurate reporting of animal studies is required, with references to guidelines such as ARRIVE and IMPROVE.

Extended information on research ethics can be found under the Frontiers Policies and Publication Ethics page.