Frontiers is one of the world's largest fully open-access publishers - 228 Gold OA journals spanning science, technology, engineering, medicine, and the social sciences, all published under a single Frontiers brand. Founded in 2007 by neuroscientists Kamila and Henry Markram in Lausanne, Switzerland, the company grew rapidly on the strength of a few very large journals: Frontiers in Immunology, Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers in Neuroscience, Frontiers in Microbiology, and Frontiers in Public Health are each among the highest-volume venues in their fields.

Everything Frontiers publishes is immediately free to read under a CC BY licence - there is no subscription or hybrid route. That makes the economics simple (one APC per accepted article) but also means the APC question matters more here than at mixed-model publishers. This guide covers how to pick the right Frontiers journal, what the fees actually are, how the distinctive collaborative peer-review process works, and how the publisher's reputation debate should factor into your decision.

Frontiers journals are broad-scope by design, organized by discipline with specialty sections inside each title. Use the guide below to choose a route.

228 fully open-access journals, all carrying the "Frontiers in ..." naming pattern, organized around a few structural features:

• Field journals - broad titles such as Frontiers in Immunology, Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers in Oncology, and Frontiers in Pharmacology, each divided into specialty sections with their own editorial boards.
• Research Topics - editor-curated article collections that cut across sections; a large share of Frontiers articles are published within them.
• Article types A/B/C - A-type (original research, reviews, systematic reviews, methods) carries the full APC; B-type (mini reviews, perspectives, case reports, opinions) is discounted; C-type (editorials, corrections) is free.
• Loop - Frontiers' researcher network, integrated with its submission and review platform; every author, reviewer, and editor has a Loop profile.

Frontiers is 100% Gold OA: every article is published under CC BY with no embargo, and authors retain copyright. APCs are set per journal, in four categories by field economics and journal maturity, and per article type. Figures below are from the Frontiers fee pages (CHF, before tax); check the journal's own fee page before submitting.

Frontiers reports an average APC of about US$2,511. Two ways to avoid paying out of pocket: (1) **institutional agreements** - Frontiers has publishing agreements with more than 740 institutions, including flat-fee deals that cover members' APCs entirely; (2) **fee support** - a waiver/discount program open to any author regardless of field or funder; Frontiers reports waiving over US$9 million in 2025 across roughly 11,300 articles. Waiver requests are handled separately from editorial decisions. Because Frontiers has no subscription journals, it does not sign transformative (Read & Publish) agreements.

Frontiers uses a distinctive review workflow rather than conventional anonymous review:

• Initial checks by AIRA - Frontiers' AI-based integrity assistant runs 40+ automated checks (plagiarism, image manipulation, scope) before human review; humans make all final decisions.
• Independent review phase - editor-assigned reviewers assess the manuscript against methodological soundness criteria.
• Interactive review forum - authors and reviewers enter a direct online dialogue to resolve comments iteratively until consensus, rather than exchanging rounds through the editor.
• Published accountability - reviewer and handling-editor names appear on every accepted article; reviewers cannot remain anonymous on published papers.
• Timeline - Frontiers states the process typically completes in under 90 days, fast by discipline standards.

The model's supporters credit its transparency and speed; critics argue the consensus-oriented design and Research Topic volume can pressure reviewers toward acceptance. Read recent papers in your target section to judge quality for yourself.

1. Pick the journal and specialty section. Scope statements are on each journal page; if you were invited to a Research Topic, verify its editors and fit.
2. Read the author guidelines. Frontiers has unified guidelines plus per-journal specifics at frontiersin.org/guidelines/author-guidelines.
3. Prepare your manuscript. Frontiers uses its author-date (Harvard-style) citation format for most journals and Vancouver for medical titles; SciSpace templates handle both.
4. Submit via the Frontiers platform. Submission, review, and the interactive forum all run on Frontiers' own Loop-integrated system - no Editorial Manager or ScholarOne.
5. Respond in the review forum. Expect direct, iterative exchanges with reviewers rather than a single revision letter.

Frontiers is a legitimate, established OA publisher - a member of COPE and OASPA - but it operates under more scrutiny than legacy houses, and you should know the history. Jeffrey Beall added Frontiers to his predatory-publishers list in 2015, a move many bibliometricians disputed; the list itself was taken down in 2017. In January 2023, Zhejiang Gongshang University in China said it would stop counting Frontiers (along with MDPI and Hindawi) articles in researcher evaluations, and several Frontiers titles have appeared on institutional early-warning lists. Criticism centers on publication volume, Research Topic proliferation, and integrity screening at scale - a 2026 study flagged paper-mill-linked output in some cancer journals - not on the OA model itself. On the other side of the ledger: flagship titles such as Frontiers in Immunology retain Journal Impact Factors and Scopus/PubMed indexing, and no major Frontiers flagship has been delisted from Web of Science. Practical advice: verify your specific journal's current indexing in Scopus and the Web of Science Master Journal List before submitting, exactly as you would anywhere.

Frontiers is a member of COPE and OASPA and follows COPE guidance on retractions and corrections. AIRA screening runs on every submission before review. Data availability statements are required, and authors retain copyright under CC BY. Concerns about a published article can be raised through the journal's research integrity team.