Press office
2023

 
 
 

About

Frontiers is the 3rd most-cited and 6th largest research publisher with a mission to accelerate scientific discovery by making science open.

Founded in 2007 by Kamila Markram and Henry Markram, two neuroscientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Switzerland, Frontiers places the researcher at the center of everything they do and enables the research community to develop the solutions needed to live healthy lives on a healthy planet. Featuring custom-built technology, artificial intelligence, and rigorous quality standards, Frontiers’ research articles have been viewed more than 2.4 billion times, reflecting the power of research that is open for all.

 
 
 

Key facts

  • 3rd most-cited publisher

    with an average of 5 citations per article

  • 493,000 quality research articles

    freely available worldwide

  • 2.4 billion article views and downloads

    with 6.4 million citations

  • 281,000 editors and 2 million authors

    from leading institutions around the world

  • 229 journals

    across 1,650 academic disciplines

  • partnerships

    8 national and 16 consortia agreements serving 700 individual institutions

    15 publishing partnerships with 16 partner journals

  • 2,000+ employees

    in 17 locations across Europe, North America, and Asia, representing 82 nationalities

Progress Report 2022

Spokespeople

 

Kamila Markram, PhD
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

Kamila co-founded Frontiers with the vision to make research openly and widely available for the benefit of humanity. Winner of various entrepreneurial and innovation awards, she frequently speaks on Open Science topics at world renowned events and venues, including the National Academy of Sciences, Science Foo Camp, TEDx, Web Summit, ESOF, GESDA and alike.

  • Kamila completed her Master’s thesis at the Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt and obtained her Master’s in Psychology at Technical University Berlin in 2003, followed by the PhD in Neuroscience at the EPFL in Switzerland in 2006. During her postdoctoral studies at the EPFL, she co-developed the “Intense World Theory of Autism”, proposing that autism results from a “super-charged” brain that perceives, absorbs and feels too much causing autistic people to withdraw from an overly intense world. The theory has been widely featured in popular science magazines and documentaries and published as a book in 2018.

 

Frederick Fenter, PhD
Chief Executive Editor

Fred supervises Frontiers’ journal portfolio and is directly involved in all strategic projects. He served as a publishing consultant during Frontiers’ launch phase, re-joining in 2013 in his current role. An active advocate for Open Science, Fred frequently organizes and participates in a variety of advocacy events and roundtables.

  • Fred earned a PhD in Chemistry from Harvard and continued his research on atmospheric compounds at the CNRS in France and EPFL in Switzerland. He moved into academic publishing in 1997, first overseeing a portfolio of journals, book series and major reference works at Elsevier Science and then founding FontisMedia, a publishing technology start-up that developed the first multi-language content-management platform for scientific journals. He was also technology advisor for the launch of an institutional document repository InfoScience and consulted for the founding of the English-language EPFL Press.

 
 
 

 Timeline

  • 2007

    Frontiers founded by Henry and Kamila Markram

  • 2008

    Gold Open Access business model adopted

  • 2009

    Research Topics introduced

  • 2010

    1,000 articles published

    10,000 editorial board members

  • 2011

    20,000 editorial board members

  • 2012

    5,000 articles published

    Frontiers Research Network launched

  • 2013

    10,000 articles published

    Frontiers for Young Minds is created

  • 2014

    20,000 articles published

    50,000 editorial board members

    200 Research Topic e-books published

  • 2015

    30,000 articles published

    500 Research Topic e-Books published

    Frontiers Forum inaugurated

  • 2016

    50,000 articles published

    1,000 Research Topic e-books published

  • 2017

    522 institutional partnerships

    AI-powered reviewer tools introduced

  • 2018

    100,000 articles published

    500 million article views and downloads

    Artificial Intelligence Review Assistant AIRA built in-house

  • 2019

    2,000 Research Topic e-books published

  • 2020

    200,000 articles published

    1 billion article views and downloads

  • 2021

    3rd most-cited publisher

    1.5 billion article views and downloads

    273,000 articles published

    1,200 employees across 14 locations

  • 2022

    2.1 billion article views and downloads

    398,00 articles published

    2,400 employees across 17 locations

    Frontiers Planet Prize inaugurated

 

Media citations

 

191,000+

Frontiers’ articles featured by international news outlets, including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The National Geographic, BBC World News, among others

 
 

1.2 million

Frontiers’ articles mentions across all social media channels

 
 
 

Replay of life before death

The Guardian | 23 Feb 2022

Imagine reliving your entire life in the space of seconds. A study published to Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience suggested that your brain may remain active and coordinated during and even after the transition to death, and be programmed to orchestrate the whole ordeal.

— Read more

Polluting WWII shipwreck

The Washington Post | 29 Oct 2022

Researchers discovered that an 80 year old historic World War II shipwreck is still influencing the microbiology and geochemistry of the ocean floor where it rests. In  Frontiers in Marine Science, they showed how the wreck is leaking hazardous pollutants, influencing the marine microbiology around it.

— Read more

Happy monkey, happy gut

Bloomberg | 11 Nov 2022

Friendly monkeys have higher levels of helpful bacteria and lower levels of potentially disease-causing microbes in their guts, according to a study published in Frontiers in Microbiology. Monkeys engaging in friendly social interactions with peers are more likely to have an abundance of gut bacteria known to benefit the immune system.

— Read more

Vegetables and cardiovascular disease

BBC | 21 Feb 2022

A sufficient intake of vegetables is important for maintaining a balanced diet and avoiding a wide range of diseases. But might a diet rich in vegetables also lower the risk of cardiovascular disease? Unfortunately not, according to a study published in Frontiers in Nutrition.

— Read more

 
 
 

Frontiers for Young Minds (FYM) is an award-winning, non-profit, open-access, scientific journal for kids that publishes articles written by leading researchers and peer reviewed by children aged 8-15. 

The journal features over 1,200 articles with over 35 million views and downloads, produced by 3,800 authors, mentored by 800+ scientists and reviewed by 7,400+ youngsters from 65 countries worldwide.

FYM publishes in eight subject areas (Astronomy and Physics, Biodiversity, Chemistry & Materials, Earth & its Resources, Engineering & Technology, Human Health, Mathematics & Economics, Neuroscience & Psychology) with materials available in English, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and French. To-date, the Nobel Collections (volumes 1, 2 and 3) garnered 150M+ views on social media. 

 
 
 
 
 

Frontiers in Science is Frontiers’ flagship, multidisciplinary open access journal focused on transformational science to accelerate solutions for healthy lives on a healthy planet.

The journal publishes a select number of exceptional peer-reviewed lead articles invited from internationally renowned researchers, whose work addresses key global challenges in human and planetary health. Each lead article is enriched by a diverse hub of content:

  • editorials by authorities from academia, policy, and civil society

  • viewpoints by influential researchers in the field

  • Frontiers Forum Deep Dive, a scientific symposium where the article and hub content are discussed with academic peers and key stakeholders

  • policy outlooks from policy experts, published by Frontiers Policy Labs

  • lay summary, infographics, and a video explaining the lead article’s main concepts to a broad audience

  • article version for kids, published by Frontiers for Young Minds

  • author interviews and press materials.

 
 
 
 

Frontiers Forum runs as a series of speaker sessions, where Nobel Laureates and other leading scientists showcase and discuss scientific advances with an invited audience of the world’s top researchers, policymakers, and innovators.

By connecting global communities across science, policy, and civil society, the Forum maximizes the reach of transformational science and sparks powerful new collaborations to accelerate solutions for healthy lives on a healthy planet.

In 2023, Frontiers Forum hosted over 500 guests in person in Montreux and a few thousand virtual attendees with a spectacular line-up of speakers including Jane Goodall, Ban Ki-moon, Yuval Noah Harari, Johan Rockström, Cynthia Kenyon, Rudolf Jaenisch, Britt Wray, Kevin Esvelt, Seth Berkley, Mary Scholes, among others. The Forum was featured in over 800 media outlets in 44 countries with 1.6B outreach.

 
 
 
 
 

Frontiers Policy Labs initiative seeks to strengthen the connection between robust scientific research and informed policymaking.

Traditional labs facilitate a controlled environment for research and experimentation, for trial and error, measurement, observation, and practice. That is what Frontiers aims to achieve through Policy Labs - an environment where global experts and thought leaders can discuss and strengthen the dialogue between science and policy.

In 2022, Policy Labs featured 28 commentaries, 1 video conversation, and 1 evidence snapshot with experts on a variety of topics from climate change evidence to strengthening the role of science in policymaking, open science, big data, global research, and funding. The newly launched Science Diplomacy section discusses the missing links between science and international diplomacy.

 
 
 
 
 
 

Frontiers builds all their technology in-house and is known as a fast, efficient, powerful and highly scalable open science platform, customized for the needs of authors, editors, reviewers, and readers.

The Artificial Intelligence Review Assistant (AIRA) is an industry-first revolutionizing how manuscripts are evaluated. AIRA currently makes up to 20 recommendations in seconds, from assessing language quality and the integrity of figures to detecting plagiarism and potential conflicts of interest; performs checks to validate the papers’ quality, including image manipulation and potentially fraudulent detection.

One of the most exciting recent developments has been the roll out of interactive AIRA, which includes a number of new features designed to save time and enhance efficiency. The editors are empowered to interact with AIRA checks directly giving immediate feedback and resolving recommendations on issues such as scope suitability, image integrity, ethics, and review quality. 

 
 
 

Media contacts

For general media inquiries, please contact: publicrelations@frontiersin.org
For media enquires related to research, please contact: press@frontiersin.org
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