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
7.0. That is the Impact Factor Frontiers displays on its own journal page for Frontiers in Immunology, retrieved 8 August 2026 – the figure from the most recent Clarivate Journal Citation Reports release of June 2026, covering 2025 citation data. Frontiers reports a CiteScore of 11.3 alongside it. Frontiers is one of the few publishers that puts the current figure on the journal’s front page rather than burying it, which makes the publisher’s own page an unusually good free source for this particular title.
This is one of the more volatile Impact Factors in immunology
More than most journals, Frontiers in Immunology punishes anyone who quotes a remembered number. Its reported figure has moved across recent release cycles roughly as follows: about 8.8 for the 2021 data year, down to 5.7 for 2023, 5.9 for 2024, and back up to 7.0 for 2025. That is a swing of more than three points inside five releases.
The mechanism is arithmetic rather than mysterious. The Impact Factor is citations in the data year to citable items from the two preceding years, divided by the count of those items. Frontiers journals expanded output sharply and then contracted it, and the denominator moves faster than the numerator when a journal’s volume changes at that rate – so the ratio swings even when the underlying research and its reception are broadly stable. The practical consequence: a figure for this journal that is one release old is not approximately right, it is likely to be wrong by a point or more. Date every figure you quote.
Front. Immunol. – abbreviation and identifiers
The abbreviated title is Front. Immunol. (rendered Front Immunol in PubMed and Vancouver style). The journal is online-only with e-ISSN 1664-3224, published by Frontiers Media SA. It is the official journal of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS), and its Field Chief Editor is Pietro Ghezzi of Brighton and Sussex Medical School.
Scope and indexing
The journal publishes across basic, translational and clinical immunology, organised into more than twenty-five specialty sections – among them B cell biology, cancer immunity and immunotherapy, microbial immunology, viral immunology, vaccines and molecular therapeutics, autoimmune and autoinflammatory disorders, and mucosal immunity. That sectional structure means submissions are handled by section rather than by one central editorial desk, which is worth knowing when you are judging scope fit.
It is indexed in MEDLINE, PubMed Central, Scopus and – critically for this page – the Science Citation Index Expanded. SCIE coverage is what makes a journal eligible for the JCR in the first place; a journal outside SCIE has no Impact Factor at all, whatever a website may claim on its behalf.
Open access and cost
Frontiers in Immunology is fully gold open access, publishing under a CC BY licence, with no subscription route. Frontiers states that article processing charges apply to articles accepted for publication, but the amount is not fixed on the journal page: it varies by article type and is set out in the publisher’s own fee schedule, which is revised periodically. CASRAI has deliberately not quoted a figure here rather than publish one that may be stale – check the current fee for your intended article type on the Frontiers fee page, and check whether your institution holds an agreement that covers it, before you submit.
How to verify the current figure
For this journal, start with the publisher: Frontiers displays the current Impact Factor directly on the journal page, updates it after each June release, and it costs nothing to read. For an authoritative record – the kind you would want behind a promotion or tenure claim – use jcr.clarivate.com via your institutional login, which also gives you the category, the rank within it, and the quartile. Third-party trackers are the worst option for this specific title, because a journal whose figure moves this much between releases is exactly the case where a lagging cached number does the most damage. The general procedure is set out in how to check a journal’s impact factor in JCR.
The question behind the question
A large share of people searching for this journal’s Impact Factor are not really asking about the metric – they are asking whether Frontiers in Immunology is a reputable place to publish or to cite, and reaching for the number as a shortcut. The number will not answer that. What is relevant is the journal’s editorial process, which Frontiers runs on an identified, collaborative model that differs substantially from conventional anonymous review; we cover how it works in Frontiers collaborative peer review and address the reputational question directly in is Frontiers peer reviewed?. On the metric itself, DORA and CoARA are unambiguous: a journal-level two-year citation average is not evidence about an individual article or its authors, and a journal with a JIF that swings three points in five years is a vivid illustration of how little the number carries on its own.
Related terms
- Journal Impact Factor (JIF) – the general metric this page illustrates.
- Journal Citation Reports (JCR) – the annual Clarivate release the figure comes from.
- CiteScore – the Scopus metric quoted alongside it, on a different window and denominator.
- Gold open access – the journal’s publishing model.
- Journal Citation Indicator (JCI) – Clarivate’s field-normalised companion metric.
- PLOS ONE’s Journal Impact Factor – another large open-access title whose figure is often misquoted.
- CiteScore vs Journal Impact Factor – why the two numbers are not comparable.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Frontiers in Immunology’s current Impact Factor?
Frontiers displays a Journal Impact Factor of 7.0 on the journal’s own page, based on the June 2026 Clarivate Journal Citation Reports release covering 2025 citation data. The journal’s CiteScore, a related Scopus metric on a different window and denominator, is currently listed as 11.3.
Why does Frontiers in Immunology’s Impact Factor change so much year to year?
The Impact Factor is citations in the data year divided by the number of citable items published in the two preceding years, and Frontiers in Immunology’s output volume has expanded and then contracted sharply across recent cycles. Because the denominator moves faster than the numerator when a journal’s article count changes that much, the ratio swings even when the underlying research and its reception are broadly stable – the reported figure has moved from about 8.8 for the 2021 data year down to 5.7 for 2023, 5.9 for 2024, and back up to 7.0 for 2025.
What is the abbreviation and ISSN for Frontiers in Immunology?
The standard abbreviation is Front. Immunol. (rendered Front Immunol in PubMed and Vancouver style). It is an online-only journal published by Frontiers Media SA under e-ISSN 1664-3224.
Is Frontiers in Immunology indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE)?
Yes. Alongside SCIE, it is indexed in MEDLINE, PubMed Central and Scopus. SCIE coverage is what makes a journal eligible for a JCR Impact Factor in the first place – a journal outside SCIE has no Impact Factor at all, whatever a website may claim on its behalf.
Is Frontiers in Immunology open access, and does it charge publication fees?
Yes, it is fully gold open access, publishing under a CC BY licence with no subscription route. Frontiers applies article processing charges that vary by article type and are set out in the publisher’s own fee schedule, so check the current rate for your intended article type – and whether your institution holds an agreement covering it – directly with Frontiers before you submit.
Will there be a 2026 Impact Factor for Frontiers in Immunology?
Not yet. Clarivate publishes the Journal Citation Reports annually each June, and the figure currently shown (7.0) is from the June 2026 release, which covers 2025 citation data. A figure reflecting 2026 activity would not be expected until around June 2027, following the same annual pattern. See how to check a journal’s impact factor in JCR for the general verification procedure.
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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