Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A researcher preparing a grant biosketch cites Frontiers in Immunology's current JIF of 7.0 (2025 JCR data) from the publisher's own journal page rather than an aggregator tracker, since Frontiers displays the figure directly.
- Is an instance
A bibliometrics team comparing journal metrics over time notes that Frontiers in Immunology's JIF fell from about 8.8 (2021 data) to 5.7 (2023 data) before rebounding to 7.0 (2025 data), and treats any single year's figure with caution given that volatility.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
Citing a JIF figure for Frontiers in Immunology found on an unfamiliar tracker site without checking it against the publisher's own page or Clarivate's JCR, given how much this specific title's reported figure has moved between recent JCR releases.
Editorial commentary
Frontiers in Immunology is an open-access immunology journal published by Frontiers Media SA, part of the Frontiers journal family. Like any Clarivate-indexed journal, it receives an annual Journal Impact Factor (JIF) in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) — the same two-year, citations-over-citable-items calculation used for every journal in the JIF system. See the general Journal Impact Factor entry for how the metric itself is computed and why it should not be used to judge individual articles or authors.
Current reported figure
Frontiers’ own journal page for Frontiers in Immunology reports an Impact Factor of 7.0, reflecting the 2025 JCR data year (the release Clarivate published in June 2026) — this is a publisher-stated, primary-source figure rather than a secondary-tracker estimate. Independent aggregator trackers (journalmetrics.org, wos-journal.info, manusights.com) corroborate the same 7.0 figure and list the journal as JCR Q1 in its category. For the prior data year, Frontiers’ own page and multiple trackers report a 2024 JIF of 5.9. The journal’s reported JIF has fluctuated more than most in recent years — publicly available tracker summaries describe a run of roughly 8.8 (2021 data), 7.3 (2022 data), 5.7 (2023 data), 5.9 (2024 data), and 7.0 (2025 data) — a pattern CASRAI has not independently reconciled figure-by-figure against a live jcr.clarivate.com subscription. Treat the 7.0 current figure as reported/publisher-corroborated, and confirm the live number directly with Clarivate or your institution’s JCR access before citing it in a formal document, especially given how much this particular title’s JIF has moved year to year.
Where to verify it yourself
- Clarivate Journal Citation Reports (jcr.clarivate.com) — the authoritative source; requires an institutional subscription.
- Frontiers’ own journal page for Frontiers in Immunology (frontiersin.org/journals/immunology) — publisher-provided, and unusually, this publisher does display the current JIF prominently, alongside CiteScore and total-citation figures.
- Independent trackers (wos-journal.info, journalmetrics.org, resurchify.com and similar sites) republish JCR-derived figures and are useful for a quick cross-check, but can lag the official release or disagree slightly with each other — use them as a starting point, not a citable source of record.
See the companion guide How to Look Up a Journal’s Impact Factor (and What It Actually Tells You) for the general lookup process.
Journal profile
- Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
- Model: Fully open access, article processing charge (APC) funded, part of the broader Frontiers journal series.
- Scope: Immunology across basic, translational, and clinical research, organized into numerous specialty sections rather than a single unified editorial scope.
- ISSN: 1664-3224 (online)
- JCR category: Immunology (Q1 in the 2025 JCR release per the sources cited above)
Why the exact number keeps shifting
Three things routinely change a journal’s reported JIF year to year, and Frontiers in Immunology is a pronounced example: (1) Clarivate releases a new JCR every June, covering a new two-year citation window, so last year’s number is always one release behind; (2) large, high-volume open-access journals like this one can see their citable-item denominator and citation numerator move substantially between releases as submission volume and citation patterns shift, which is part of why this title’s JIF has swung between roughly 5.7 and 8.8 across recent releases; and (3) secondary trackers sometimes lag or mis-transcribe the official Clarivate figure, which is why the publisher’s own page and Clarivate’s JCR itself remain the sources to check for a citation-ready number rather than relying on a single tracker site.
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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