The Frontiers in Neuroscience journal series is the 1st most cited in Neurosciences

This year, 259 journals were listed in the category of Neurosciences in the 2016 edition of the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), of which 37 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.

With 11 Neurosciences journals listed in the 2016-JCR (Table 1), our analysis shows that the quality, impact and influence of the Frontiers Neurosciences journal series are steadily rising and now ranks top most cited in Neurosciences, with a total of 20,063 citations in 2016 to 5,631 articles published in 2014 and 2015 (Figure 1).

Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience received the highest Impact Factor with 5.076. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience received the most citations (4,864), making it the 8th most cited journal in Neurosciences.

With 7 of the top 10 most cited open-access journals the category of Neurosciences being Frontiers journals, Frontiers is also the incontestable open-access leader in Neurosciences (Figure 2).

Overall, with 24 journals listed across 20 JCR categories in the 2016-JCR, Frontiers’ Impact Factors are consistently ranked among the best performing journals, ranking as high as at the 96th percentile.

In summary, the Frontiers in Neuroscience Journal Series:

• Is the most-cited journal series in Neurosciences, with 20,063 citations.

• Reaches as high as the 83rd percentile of Journal Impact Factors in the Neurosciences category, with Frontiers in Molecular Neurosciences (IF 5.076).

Top 10 most cited journals in Neurosciences

Figure 1. Total number of citations in 2016 to articles published in 2014 and 2015, for the top 10 most cited journals in Neurosciences. Bar plot shows Frontiers in Neuroscience Journal Series (made up of 11 Frontiers in Neuroscience journal titles, in red) ranks 1st most cited of the 259 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).

Top 10 most cited open-access journals in Neurosciences

Figure 2. Total number of citations in 2016 to articles published in 2014 and 2015, for the top 10 most cited open-access journals in Neurosciences. Bar plot shows Frontiers journals (in red) dominate 7 out of 10 top positions when compared to 37 open-access journals indexed. These include 1st most cited Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (4,864 citations to 1,616 articles), 2nd most cited Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience (3,976 citations to 873 articles) and 3rd most cited Frontiers in Neuroscience (2,999 citations to 841 articles). The results are based on the 2016 Journal Citation Reports, released in 2017 by Clarivate Analytics (f.k.a. Thomson Reuters).

Table 1: Frontiers journals indexed in the 2016-JCR Neurosciences category*

Individual Journal Rankings

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

With an Impact Factor of 3.209, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience is the 1st most cited Psychology journal in the world. It is also the 8th most cited Neurosciences journal in the world. Read the full analysis here and Frontiers in Human Neuroscience Report here.

Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience

With an Impact Factor of 4.555, Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience is the 2nd most cited open-access journal in Neurosciences. Read Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience Report here

Frontiers in Neuroscience

With an Impact Factor of 3.566, Frontiers in Neuroscience is the 3rd most cited open-access journal in Neurosciences. Read Frontiers in Neuroscience Report here.

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience

With an Impact Factor of 3.104, Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience is the 5th most cited Behavioral Sciences journal in the world and 4th most cited open-access journal in Neurosciences. Read Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience Report here.

Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

With an Impact Factor of 4.504, Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience is the 4th most cited Geriatrics & Gerontology journal in the world and also the 5th most cited open-access journal in Neurosciences. Read Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience R****eport here.

Frontiers in Neuroanatomy

With an Impact Factor of 3.267, Frontiers in Neuroanatomy is the 2nd most cited Anatomy & Morphology journal in the world with an Impact Factor ranking as high as the 96th percentile. It is also the 10th most cited open-access journal in Neurosciences. Read Frontiers in Neuroanatomy Report here.

Frontiers Neurorobotics

With an Impact Factor of 2.486, Frontiers in Neurorobotics is 2nd most cited open-access journal in Robotics, and the 3rd most cited open-access journal in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. Read Frontiers in Neurorobotics Report here.

Frontiers Neurology

With an Impact Factor of 3.552, Frontiers in Neurology is the 2nd most cited open-access journal in Clinical Neurology and also the 8th most cited open-access journal in Neurosciences. You can read the full analysis in Clinical Neurology here and Frontiers in Neurology R****eport here.

Frontiers in Molecular Neurosciences

F_rontiers in Molecular Neuroscience_ received the highest Impact Factor of our Neuroscience journal series, with 5.076, ranking it in the 83rd percentile of Journal Impact Factors in the Neurosciences category. Read Frontiers in Molecular Neurosciences Report here.

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 Idan Segev  and Assistant Field Chief Editors John H. Kaas, Larry Abbott and Henry Markram, as well as all the Specialty Chief Editors, the diligent work of the Associate and Review Editors and the Frontiers Journal Management team for this outstanding achievement.

Neurosciences Editorial Board

(see full board here)

Idan Segev, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem | Field Chief Editor, Neuroscience

Jon Kaas, Vanderbilt University | Assistant Field Chief Editor, Neuroscience

Henry Markram, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne | Assistant Field Chief Editor, Neuroscience

Larry Abbott, Frontiers Media SA | Assistant Field Chief Editor, Neuroscience

Gemma Casadesus, Kent State University | Specialty Chief Editor, Aging Neuroscience

Rodrigo Kuljiš, Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine | Specialty Chief Editor, Aging Neuroscience

Joel Bornstein, University of Melbourne | Specialty Chief Editor, Autonomic Neuroscience

Vaughan Macefield, University of Western Sydney | Specialty Chief Editor, Autonomic Neuroscience

Nuno Sousa, University of Minho | Specialty Chief Editor, Behavioral Neuroscience

Russell Poldrack, Stanford University | Specialty Chief Editor, Brain Imaging Methods

Jean-Baptiste Poline, University of California, Berkeley | Specialty Chief Editor, Brain Imaging Methods

Egidio D‘Angelo, Università di Pavia | Specialty Chief Editor, Cellular Neuroscience

Christian Hansel, University of Chicago | Specialty Chief Editor, Cellular Neuroscience

Misha Tsodyks, Weizmann Institute of Science | Specialty Chief Editor, Computational Neuroscience

Si Wu, Beijing Normal University | Specialty Chief Editor, Computational Neuroscience

Hauke Heekeren, Freie Universität Berlin | Specialty Chief Editor, Decision Neuroscience

Paul Phillips, University of Washington | Specialty Chief Editor, Decision Neuroscience

Frontiers Neuroscience Editorial Office, Frontiers Media SA | Specialty Chief Editor, Evolutionary Neuroscience

Srikantan Nagarajan, University of California, San Francisco | Specialty Chief Editor, Human Neuroscience

Hauke Heekeren, Freie Universität Berlin | Specialty Chief Editor, Human Neuroscience

Sidney Simon, Duke University | Specialty Chief Editor, Integrative Neuroscience

Elizabeth Torres, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey | Assistant Specialty Chief Editor, Integrative Neuroscience

Robert Harvey, University College London (UCL) | Specialty Chief Editor, Molecular Neuroscience

Jochen Meier, Technische Universität Braunschweig | Specialty Chief Editor, Molecular Neuroscience

Takao Hensch, Harvard University | Specialty Chief Editor, Neural Circuits

Laura Ballerini, Scuola Internationale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA) | Specialty Chief Editor, Neural Technology

Ioan Opris, Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine | Specialty Chief Editor, Neural Technology

Javier DeFelipe, Bienvenidos al Instituto Cajal | Specialty Chief Editor, Neuroanatomy

Einar Sigurdsson, New York University | Specialty Chief Editor, Neurodegeneration

Wendy Noble, King’s College London | Specialty Chief Editor, Neurodegeneration

Mark Burns, Georgetown University | Specialty Chief Editor, Neurodegeneration

Frontiers Neuroscience Editorial Office, Frontiers Media SA | Specialty Chief Editor, Neuroenergetics

Laura Ballerini, Scuola Internationale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA) | Specialty Chief Editor, Neuroengineering

Angelique Bordey, Yale University | Specialty Chief Editor, Neurogenesis

Luca Bonfanti, University of Turin | Specialty Chief Editor, Neurogenesis

Jan Bjaalie, University of Oslo | Specialty Chief Editor, Neuroinformatics

Sean Hill, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne | Specialty Chief Editor, Neuroinformatics

Giacomo Indiveri, ETH Zürich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich | Specialty Chief Editor, Neuromorphic Engineering

Timothy Horiuchi, University of Maryland, College Park | Specialty Chief Editor, Neuromorphic Engineering

Eric Leuthardt, Washington University in St Louis | Specialty Chief Editor, Neuroprosthetics

Alois Knoll, Technische Universität München | Specialty Chief Editor, Neurorobotics

Florian Röhrbein, Technische Universität München | Specialty Chief Editor, Neurorobotics

Mary Kennedy, California Institute of Technology (Caltech) | Specialty Chief Editor, Synaptic Neuroscience

Per Jesper Sjöström, McGill University | Specialty Chief Editor, Synaptic Neuroscience

Ranulfo Romo, Frontiers Media SA | Specialty Chief Editor, Systems Neuroscience

Maria Sanchez-Vives, Consorci Institut D’Investigacions Biomediques August Pi I Sunyer | Specialty Chief Editor, Systems Neuroscience

Read more about Frontiers journals

Read the analysis for other Frontiers journals here. 

Discover the latest Frontiers report here

* We note that the 2016-JC also includes Frontiers in Neurology in the Neurosciences category. With a strong health orientation, Frontiers in Neurology is not pooled as part of the Frontiers in Neuroscience journal series.