Peer review

Only the best science can solve the world’s biggest challenges. That’s why every article we publish goes through our rigorous quality checks and peer review by experts.

Collaborative
review process

Our state-of-the-art collaborative peer review forum allows authors and reviewers to connect online so they can work together to improve the manuscript. Our dedication to process optimisation resulted in an average time from submission to decision of 77 days in 2021, down from 80 days in 2020. 90% of our authors, 93% of our reviewers and 84% of our handling editors rating the review process as good or excellent.

 

77 days

Average time from submission to decision

32 days

Average publication time for accepted articles

 

How do you rate the
Frontiers collaborative review process?

Survey results of 13,294 Frontiers’ editors, authors, and reviewers show an exceptionally high satisfaction rate with our peer-review process. Data Source: Frontiers Surveys, Jan-Dec 2021.

How do you rate
the quality of Frontiers?

Survey results of Frontiers’ website visitors show exceptionally high quality ratings for our products and services. Data Source: Frontiers Surveys, Jan-Dec 2021.

Submissions, acceptances, rejections

The Frontiers collaborative review objectively certifies quality, validity and rigor of research. It is performed by an external editorial board of researchers, assisted by our peer review team and powered by our custom-built open science platform, featuring our artificial intelligence review assistant (AIRA). The review mandate does not focus on potential impact, nor are artificial acceptance or rejection rates imposed. Within this framework, the rejection rate for 2021 was on average 40% across all Frontiers journals, and as high as 79% in some journals.