Frontiers in Pharmacology was launched in 2010. In just 4 years, it has become the 3rd largest and the 2****nd most cited open access journal in Pharmacology & Pharmacy.

The 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 Pharmacology

There are 255 journals listed in the category of Pharmacology in the 2014 Journal Citation Reports (JCR) provided by Thomson Reuters in 2015. Frontiers in Pharmacology is one of the 23 Gold open-access journals.

Below are the results of our comparative analysis of these journals on the article volume published, impact factor (IF) achieved, and total number of citations reported, in 2014, based on articles published over the two preceding years, 2012 and 2013. (Click here to see the volume and number of citations of other Frontiers journals).

Comparison of impact factors and volume among all open-access journals (23) in Pharmacology & Pharmacy

Figure 1. Frontiers in Pharmacology compared to 23 open-access journals listed in the Pharmacology & Pharmacy JCR category. The journal analysis is based on the 2014 Journal Citation Reports published by Thomson Reuters, 2015.

Comparison of impact factors and volume among all journals (255) in Pharmacology & Pharmacy

Figure 2. Frontiers in Pharmacology compared to all 255 journals (subscription and open access) listed in the Pharmacology & Pharmacy JCR category. The journal analysis is based on the 2014 Journal Citation Reports published by Thomson Reuters, 2015.

Comparison of total citations in 2014 for articles published in the previous two years among all journals (255) in Pharmacology & Pharmacy

Figure 3. Top 47 most-cited journals in Pharmacology & Pharmacy in 2014 (citations in 2014 were counted for articles published in 2012 and 2013) in the Pharmacology & Pharmacy JCR category. The journal analysis is based on the 2014 Journal Citation Reports published by Thomson Reuters, 2015.

Summary

Amongst the 23 Gold open-access journals listed in the category of Pharmacology & Pharmacy,Frontiers in Pharmacology:

• Ranks 2nd on Impact Factor

• Is the 3rd largest open-access journal in Pharmacology & Pharmacy – 1.9 times larger than the average article volume in open-access journals in Pharmacology & Pharmacy

Amongst all of the 255 journals listed in the category of Pharmacology & Pharmacy, Frontiers in Pharmacology is:

• In the top 19% on Impact Factor

• The world’s 38th largest Pharmacology journal overall – 69% larger than the average article volume in all journals in Pharmacology & Pharmacy

• The 47th most cited journal in 2014 based on articles published in 2012 and 2013

In summary, Frontiers in Pharmacology, one of the youngest journals publishing peer-reviewed scholarly articles in Pharmacology & Pharmacy, has become the 2nd most cited and 3rd largest open-access in Pharmacology & Pharmacy with an impact factor in the top 19% amongst all 255 journals in this category.

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 Pharmacology is only 5 years old and the results represented here are based on articles published between 2012-2013 (its 3rd and 4th year in existence).

Key to success

At Frontiers, we publish all articles that are scientifically correct. We engineered theCollaborative 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 enabled by our 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 academic papers.

All of this is only possible with a stellar editorial board of researchers (see infographic). Frontiers congratulates Field Chief Editor Théophile Godfraind, the outstanding board of Specialty Chief Editors and the diligent work of the Associate and Review Editors (http://journal.frontiersin.org/journal/pharmacology) for this spectacular achievement_._

Frontiers in Pharmacology fact sheet (as of November 2015):

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

Chief Editors (see full board):

Théophile Godfraind, Université Catholique de Louvain | Field Chief Editor, Frontiers in Pharmacology

Jeffrey Atkinson, Université Henri Poincare | Specialty Chief Editor, Cardiovascular and Smooth Muscle Pharmacology

Nicholas Barnes, University of Birmingham | Specialty Chief Editor, Neuropharmacology

Jeffrey Scott Barrett, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia | Specialty Chief Editor, Obstetric and Pediatric Pharmacology

Alex Chen, Central South University Xiangya School of Medicine | Specialty Chief Editor,Integrative and Regenerative Pharmacology

Yung-Chi Cheng, Yale University | Specialty Chief Editor, Ethnopharmacology

George Joseph Christ, University of Virginia | Specialty Chief Editor, Integrative and Regenerative Pharmacology

Diana Conte Camerino, University of Bari “Aldo Moro” | Specialty Chief Editor, Pharmacology of Ion Channels and Channelopathies

Dominique Dubois, Université Libre de Bruxelles | Specialty Chief Editor, Pharmaceutical Medicine and Outcomes Research

Olivier Feron, University of Louvain, Specialty Chief Editor | Pharmacology of Anti-Cancer Drugs

Giuseppe Giaccone, Georgetown University, Specialty Chief Editor | Cancer Molecular Targets and Therapeutics

Dov Greenbaum, Yale University | Specialty Chief Editor, ELSI in Science and Genetics

Ursula Gundert-Remy, Charité | Specialty Chief Editor, Predictive Toxicology

Michael Heinrich, The School of Pharmacy | University of London, Specialty Chief Editor,Ethnopharmacology

Pamela Hornby, Johnson & Johnson | Specialty Chief Editor, Gastrointestinal Pharmacology

Jaime Kapitulnik, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem | Specialty Chief Editor, Drug Metabolism and Transport

Philippe Lory, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) & University of Montpellier | Specialty Chief Editor, Pharmacology of Ion Channels and Channelopathies

Martin Michel, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co KG, Specialty Chief Editor,Cardiovascular and Smooth Muscle Pharmacology

Paolo Montuschi, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore | Specialty Chief Editor, Respiratory Pharmacology

Eliot Ohlstein, Drexel University College of Medicine | Specialty Chief Editor, Cardiovascular and Smooth Muscle Pharmacology

Paola Patrignani, Gabriele d’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara | Specialty Chief Editor,Inflammation Pharmacology

Salvatore Salomone, Catania University | Specialty Chief Editor, Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery

Yisong Wang, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health | Specialty Chief Editor,Cancer Molecular Targets and Therapeutics

Anne Zajicek, National Institutes of Health | Specialty Chief Editor, Obstetric and Pediatric Pharmacology

Ulrich M Zanger, Dr. Margarete Fischer-Bosch-Institute of Clinical Pharmacology | Specialty Chief Editor, Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics