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

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****11.Jul.2016: F_rontiers in Human Neuroscience has an Impact Factor of 3.634. Since its launch in 2008**__, it has become the #1 most cited journal in Psychology, the #1 most cited open-access journal in Neuroscience and the 5th most cited journal in all of Neuroscience. It is also the 3rd largest journal of all in Psychology and 9th largest of all in Neuroscience.

The impact factor (IF), defined as the total number of citations divided by the number of citable articles over a two-year period, is the gold standard of journal quality (not of an individual scientist). 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 measure of the overall influence or impact of the articles published by a journal in a field.

Analyses within the categories of Neuroscience and Psychology

There are 256 journals listed in the category of Neurosciences in the 2015 Journal Citation Reports provided by Thomson Reuters in 2016. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience is one of the 37 open-access journals.

In Psychology, we analysed  all 606 journals that were listed in the 2015 Journal Citations Reports (JCR) in one of the 11 Psychology sub-categories, as provided by Thomson Reuters in 2016. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience is one of the 19 open-access journals.

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

Total citations among all open-access journals in Neuroscience

Figure 1. Total number of citations in 2015 for articles published in 2013 and 2014, ranked for all (37) open-access journals listed in the Neuroscience JCR category. Plot shows ranks for the top 20 most-cited open-access journals, where (in red) Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ranks #1 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 Neuroscience

Figure 2. Total number of citations in 2015 for  articles published in 2013 and 2014, ranked for all  (256) journals (open-access and subscription) listed in the Neuroscience JCR category. Plot shows the ranks for the  top 20 most-cited journals, where (in red) Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ranks #5 most cited (top 2%). 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 Neuroscience

Figure 3. Volume of citable items in 2015, plotted against the 2015 journal Impact Factor, for all 21 open-access journals listed in the Neuroscience JCR category. Plot shows all open-access journals in the category, with (in red) Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 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 Neuroscience

Figure 4.Volume of citable items in 2015, plotted against the 2015 journal Impact Factor, for all 256 journals (open-access  and subscription) listed in the Neuroscience JCR category. Plot shows all journals in the category, with (in red) Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Dot 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. 

Total citations among all open access journals in Psychology

Figure 5. Total number of citations in 2015 for citable articles published in 2013 and 2014, ranked for all (19) open-access journals listed in the Psychology JCR category. Plot shows ranks for the top 16 most-cited open-access journals, where (in red) Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ranks #1 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 Psychology

Figure 6. Total number of citations in 2015 for citable articles published in 2013 and 2014, ranked for all  (606) journals (open-access and subscription) listed in the Psychology JCR category. Plot shows the ranks for the top 20 most-cited journals, where  (in red) Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ranks #1 most-cited. 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 Psychology

Figure 7. Volume of citable items in 2015, for items published in 2013 and 2014, plotted against the journal Impact Factor, for all 19 open-access journals listed in the Psychology JCR category. Plot shows all open-access journals in the category, with (in red) Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 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 Psychology

Figure 8. Volume of citable items in 2015, for items published in 2013 and 2014, plotted against the journal Impact Factor, for all 606 journals (open-access  and subscription) listed in the Psychology JCR category. Plot shows all journals in the category, with (in red) Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Dot 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 37 open-access journals listed in the category of Neuroscience, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience:

• Is the largest open-access journal in Neuroscience – 5 times larger than the average article volume in open-access journals in Neuroscience.

• Is the #1 most cited open-access journal in Neuroscience in 2015, based on articles published in 2013 and 2014 – Top 1%  of most cited Neuroscience journals.

• Ranks 12th on Impact Factor – Top 31% of Impact Factors.

Amongst all of the 256 journals listed in the category of Neuroscience, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience:

• Is the 9th largest Neuroscience journal – 4 times larger than the average article volume in Neuroscience journals.

• Is the 5th most cited Neuroscience journal in 2015 based on articles published in 2013 and 2014 – Top 2%  of most cited Neuroscience journals.

• Is in the top 30% of Impact Factors.

Amongst the 19 open-access journals listed in the categories of Psychology, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience:

• Is the 2nd largest journal in Psychology – 4 times larger than the average article volume in open-access journals in Psychology.

• Is the 5th most cited Neuroscience journal in 2015 based on articles published in 2013 and 2014 – Top 3%  of most cited Neuroscience journals.

• Ranks 1st  on Impact Factor.

Amongst all of the 606 journals listed in the categories of Psychology, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience:

• Is the world’s 3rd largest psychology journal – 10 times larger than the average article volume in all journals in Psychology.

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

• Is in the top 9% of Impact Factors.

Further Significance

The results are more significant if one considers that:

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

2. The impact factor of Frontiers in Human Neuroscience has been continuously increasing from 1.548 in 2009 to 3.634 in 2015 JCR, despite a 12 times increase in volume over this period. This defies the long-held belief that publishing high volumes reduces quality.

In summary, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, one of the youngest journals publishing peer-reviewed scholarly articles in human neuroscience and psychology, has become the most-cited and 3rd largest journal in all of Psychology, the most-cited open-access journal in_Neuroscience_ as well as the 5th most-cited and 9th largest journal in all of Neuroscience.

Frontiers in Psychology, also listed in the 2015 JCR category of Psychology, is the 2nd most-cited and largest Psychology journal. Other Frontiers journals listed in the 2015 Journal Citation Reports follow a similar pattern – view the analysis here.

Key to success

At Frontiers, we publish all articles that are scientifically correct. We engineered the Collaborative Peer Review with a review mandate focused on enhancing article quality by means of rigorous and constructive feedback from expert reviewers, quick and direct interactions between authors, reviewers and the editor enabled by our review forum platform, and we enhance transparency by acknowledging reviewers and editors on the published articles. This performance analysis 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 Specialty Chief Editors Hauke R Heekeren and Srikantan S Nagarajan, the outstanding board of Associate Editors and the diligent work of the Review Editors (see full board), as well as the Frontiers Journal Management team for this spectacular achievement_._

A special congratulation goes also to former Specialty Chief Editor Robert T Knight, who formed and led Frontiers in Human Neuroscience from 2008-2014, and the Field Chief Editor of Neuroscience, Idan Segev.

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience fact sheet (as of June 2016):

The same analysis of volume, impact factor and number of citations of other Frontiers journals in the 2015 JCR can be found here.

Similar analysis for the 2014 JCR can be found here.

Editorial Board (Specialty Chief and Associate Editors, see full board):

Hauke R Heekeren, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany | Specialty Chief Editor, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

Srikantan S Nagarajan, University of California San Francisco and UC Berkeley, USA | Specialty Chief Editor, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

Aron K Barbey, University of Illinois, USA | Associate Editor

Jean-Claude Baron, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom | Associate Editor

Olivier Bertrand, INSERM, France | Associate Editor

Sven Bestmann, UCL, United Kingdom | Associate Editor

Merim Bilalić, Alpen Adria University Klagenfurt, Austria | Associate Editor

James Blair, NIMH, USA | Associate Editor

Olaf Blanke, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland | Associate Editor

Charlotte A Boettiger, University of North Carolina, USA | Associate Editor

Christoph Braun, University of Tübingen, Germany and University of Trento, Italy | Associate Editor

Andrew J. Butler, Georgia State University, USA | Associate Editor

Qing Cai, East China Normal University, China | Associate Editor

Alain Dagher, Montreal Neurological Institute & Hospital, Canada | Associate Editor

Pierfilippo De Sanctis, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, USA | Associate Editor

Leon Y Deouell, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel | Associate Editor

Francesco Di Russo, University of Rome (Foro Italico), Italy | Associate Editor

Bogdan Draganski, University Lausanne, Switzerland | Associate Editor

Stephen A Engel, University of Minnesota, USA | Associate Editor

John J Foxe, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, USA | Associate Editor

Joseph M Galea, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom | Associate Editor

Satrajit S Ghosh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA | Associate Editor

Joshua Oon Soo Goh, National Taiwan University, Taiwan | Associate Editor

Klaus Gramann, Berlin Institute of Technology, Germany | Associate Editor

Adrian G Guggisberg, Hôpitaux universitaires de Genève, Switzerland | Associate Editor

Christopher J Hasson, Northeastern University, Boston, USA | Associate Editor

Yong He, Beijing Normal University, China | Associate Editor

Hans-Jochen Heinze, University of Magdeburg, Germany | Associate Editor

Martin J. Herrmann, Universtity of Würzburg, Germany | Associate Editor

Agustin Ibanez, INECO UDP, Argentina | Associate Editor

Silvio Ionta, University Hospital Centre (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Switzerland | Associate Editor

Arthur M Jacobs, Freie Universität, Germany | Associate Editor

Lutz Jäncke, University of Zurich, Switzerland | Associate Editor

Tetsuo Kida, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Japan | Associate Editor

Frank Krueger, George Mason University, USA | Associate Editor

Edmund C Lalor, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland | Associate Editor

Mikhail Lebedev, Duke University, USA | Associate Editor

Chiang-shan R Li, Yale University, USA | Associate Editor

Sheng Li  Univ Texas- Houston, USA | Associate Editor

Vladimir Litvak, UCL Institute of Neurology, United Kingdom | Associate Editor

Daniel S Margulies, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany | Associate Editor

Mark E McCourt, North Dakota State University, USA | Associate Editor

Sophie Molholm, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, USA | Associate Editor

Thomas D Parsons, University of North Texas, USA | Associate Editor

Josef Parvizi, Stanford University, USA | Associate Editor

Alvaro Pascual-Leone, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, USA | Associate Editor

Luiz Pessoa, University of Maryland, USA | Associate Editor

Lorenzo Pia, University of Turin, Italy | Associate Editor

Gordon Pipa, Institute of Cognitive Science Osnabrück, Germany | Associate Editor

Burkhard Pleger, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany | Associate Editor

Leonhard Schilbach, Max-Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Germany | Associate Editor

Carol Seger, Colorado State University, USA | Associate Editor

Rachael D Seidler, University of Michigan, USA | Associate Editor

Jae Kun Shim, University of Maryland, USA | Associate Editor

Michael A Silver, University of California Berkeley, USA | Associate Editor

Peter Sörös, University of Oldenburg, Germany | Associate Editor

Christopher Summerfield, Oxford University, United Kingdom | Associate Editor

Xing Tian, New York University Shanghai, China | Associate Editor

Nathalie Tzourio-Mazoyer, CNRS CEA Université Bordeaux, France | Associate Editor

Kai Vogeley, University Hospital Cologne, Germany | Associate Editor

Jean Vroomen, University of Tilburg, Netherlands | Associate Editor

Patrik Vuilleumier, University Medical Centre and University Hospital Geneva, Switzerland | Associate Editor

Tor Wager, Columbia University, USA | Associate Editor

Henrik Walter, Charite Universitätsmedizin, Germany | Associate Editor

Marty G Woldorff, Duke University, Durham, USA | Associate Editor

Shuhei Yamaguchi, Shimane University, Japan | Associate Editor

Juliana Yordanova, Institute of Neurobiology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences  | Associate Editor

A special thanks goes to:

Jennifer S Bee, University of Texas, Austin, USA | Former Associate Editor

Lynne E Bernstein, George Washington University, USA | Former Associate Editor

Emrah Duzel, Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg, Germany, University College London (UCL), United Kingdom and DZNE, Germany | Former Associate Editor

Richard A P Roche, Maynooth University, Ireland | Former Associate Editor

Guillaume A Rousselet, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom | Former Associate Editor

Alexander J Shackman, University of Maryland, USA | Former Associate Editor