Frontiers journal ranking analysis: Multidisciplinary Psychology

With an Impact Factor of 2.323, Frontiers in Psychology is the #1 most-cited Multidisciplinary Psychology journal in the world.

This year, 128 journals are listed in the category of Multidisciplinary Psychology in the 2016 edition of the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), of which 10 are open-access (OA).

The Impact Factor (IF) is measured each year and reported in the JCR by Clarivate Analytics (formerly known as Thomson Reuters), along with citations and other metrics of journal impact. The IF of a journal is the average number of citations received last year to articles published in the previous two years – and is universally regarded as a metric of journal quality. The total number of citations captures how much research is built on the papers published in a journal and is therefore a measure of influence of a journal on a field. As such, the 2016-JCR analysis is based on citations in 2016 to articles published in 2014 and 2015.

Our analysis shows that the quality, impact and influence of Frontiers journals are steadily growing. With an Impact Factor of 2.323, Frontiers in Psychology is the top most cited of all journals in the category of Multidisciplinary Psychology, with a total of 6,906 citations in 2016 to 2,973 articles published in 2014 and 2015 (Figure 1).

Overall, with journals listed across 20 JCR categories, Frontiers’ Impact Factors are consistently ranked among the best performing journals, ranking as high as at the 96th percentile.

In summary, Frontiers in Psychology:

  • Is the most-cited journal, with 6,906 citations.

  • Ranks at the 74th percentile of Journal Impact Factors in the category of Multidisciplinary Psychology.

Read Frontiers in Psychology Report here.

Top 10 most cited journals in Multidisciplinary Psychology

Frontiers in Psychology_ALL top journals-MuPsycht

Figure 1. Total number of citations in 2016 to articles published in 2014 and 2015, for the top 10 most cited journals in Multidisciplinary Psychology. Bar plot shows Frontiers in Plant Science (in red) ranks 1st most cited of the 128 journals (subscription and open-access) indexed. The results are based on the 2016 Journal Citation Reports, released in 2017 by Clarivate Analytics (f.k.a. Thomson Reuters).

Scientific Excellence at Scale

Frontiers has become one of the largest open-access publishers in the world and is leading many of the technological innovations in Open Science. We engineered our 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. We enable their work with our unique review forum platform, and we introduced transparency and accountability by acknowledging reviewers and editors on the published articles.

With journals listed across 20 academic categories in the 2016-JCR, Frontiers journals rank in the top percentiles of Impact Factors and total citations. This confirms the rapidly growing success and influence of the Frontiers Open Science model, that consistently delivers scientific excellence at scale.

All of this is only possible with a stellar editorial board of researchers. Frontiers congratulates Field Chief Editor Axel Cleeremans and all Specialty Chief Editors, the diligent work of the Associate and Review Editors and the Frontiers Journal Management team for this outstanding achievement.

Read Frontiers in Psychology Report here.

Frontiers in Psychology Editorial Board

(see full board here)

Axel Cleeremans, Université Libre de Bruxelles | Field Chief Editor, Psychology

Isabelle Peretz, University of Montreal | Specialty Chief Editor, Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience

Robert Zatorre, McGill University | Specialty Chief Editor, Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience

Gianluca Castelnuovo, Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore | Specialty Chief Editor, Clinical and Health Psychology

Changiz Mohiyeddini, Northeastern University | Specialty Chief Editor, Clinical and Health Psychology

Lorenza Colzato, Universiteit Leiden | Specialty Chief Editor, Cognition

Bernhard Hommel, Universiteit Leiden | Specialty Chief Editor, Cognition

Eddy Davelaar, Birkbeck University of London | Specialty Chief Editor, Cognitive Science

Snehlata Jaswal, L M Thapar School of Management | Assistant Specialty Chief Editor, Cognitive Science

Jeffrey Stevens, University of Nebraska Lincoln | Specialty Chief Editor, Comparative Psychology

Morten Overgaard, Aarhus University | Specialty Chief Editor, Consciousness Research

Yulia Chentsova Dutton, Georgetown University | Specialty Chief Editor, Cultural Psychology

Natasha Kirkham, Birkbeck, University of London | Specialty Chief Editor, Developmental Psychology

Jessica Horst, University of Sussex | Specialty Chief Editor, Developmental Psychology

Alix Timko, University of Pennsylvania | Specialty Chief Editor, Eating Behavior

Douglas Kauffman, Boston Medical Center | Specialty Chief Editor, Educational Psychology

Marina Pavlova, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen | Specialty Chief Editor, Emotion Science

Beatrice de Gelder, Maastricht University | Specialty Chief Editor, Emotion Science

Patrik Sörqvist, Gävle University College | Specialty Chief Editor, Environmental Psychology

Peter Jonason, Western Sydney University | Specialty Chief Editor, Evolutionary Psychology

Manuel Carreiras, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language | Specialty Chief Editor, Language Sciences

Guy Cheron, Université Libre de Bruxelles | Specialty Chief Editor, Movement Science and Sport Psychology

Richard Boyatzis, Case Western Reserve University | Specialty Chief Editor, Organizational Psychology

Rufin VanRullen, Université Toulouse III Paul Sabatier | Specialty Chief Editor, Perception Science

Aaron Williamon, Royal College of Music | Specialty Chief Editor, Performance Science

Marcel Zentner, University of Innsbruck | Specialty Chief Editor, Personality and Social Psychology

Anat Bardi, Royal Holloway, University of London | Specialty Chief Editor, Personality and Social Psychology

Ariane Bazan, Université Libre de Bruxelles | Specialty Chief Editor, Psychoanalysis and Neuropsychoanalysis

Antoine Bechara, University of Southern California | Specialty Chief Editor, Psychopathology

Xavier Noel, Université Libre de Bruxelles | Specialty Chief Editor, Psychopathology

Pietro Cipresso, Istituto auxologico italiano | Specialty Chief Editor, Quantitative Psychology and Measurement

Jason Immekus, University of Louisville | Specialty Chief Editor, Quantitative Psychology and Measurement

Markus Werning, Ruhr University Bochum | Specialty Chief Editor, Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology

Erica Cosentino, Ruhr University Bochum | Assistant Specialty Chief Editor, Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology

Matthias Unterhuber, Ruhr University Bochum | Assistant Specialty Chief Editor, Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology


Read more about Frontiers journals

Read the analysis for other Frontiers journals here. This year, 24 Frontiers journals were indexed in the 2016 edition of the Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate Analytics, 2017). 

Read the analysis for other Frontiers journals here. 

Discover the latest Frontiers report here, with key facts and contributions, and details on our leading journals, their impact  and outstanding researchers on board.

Discover the latest Frontiers report here