''Frontiers in Psychology'' is a

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

open-access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

academic journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and d ...

covering all aspects of

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

. It was established in 2010 and is published by Frontiers Media. The

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

is Axel Cleeremans ( Université libre de Bruxelles).

Abstracting and indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed in

Current Contents ''Current Contents'' is a rapid alerting service database from Clarivate Analytics, formerly the Institute for Scientific Information and Thomson Reuters. It is published online and in several different printed subject sections. History ''Cur ...

/Social & Behavioral Sciences, EBSCO databases,

PsycINFO PsycINFO is a database of abstracts of literature in the field of psychology. It is produced by the American Psychological Association and distributed on the association's APA PsycNET and through third-party vendors. It is the electronic versio ...

, and

Scopus Scopus is Elsevier's abstract and citation database launched in 2004. Scopus covers nearly 36,377 titles (22,794 active titles and 13,583 inactive titles) from approximately 11,678 publishers, of which 34,346 are peer-reviewed journals in top-l ...

. According to the ''

Journal Citation Reports ''Journal Citation Reports'' (''JCR'') is an annual publicationby Clarivate Analytics (previously the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters). It has been integrated with the Web of Science and is accessed from the Web of Science-Core Collect ...

'', the journal has a 2021

impact factor The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of an academic journal is a scientometric index calculated by Clarivate that reflects the yearly mean number of citations of articles published in the last two years in a given journal, as i ...

of 4.232. Since 2016, the journal has a score of 2 in the

Norwegian Scientific Index CRIStin (Current Research Information System in Norway) is the national research information system of Norway, and is owned by the Royal Ministry of Education and Research. CRIStin documents all scholarly publications by Norwegian researchers, an ...

, which "covers the most prestigious and rigorous channels, which publish 20 per cent of the publications".

Controversies

In February 2013, Frontiers published a study by Stephan Lewandowsky and co-authors which analysed conspiracy theory explanations given in blog responses to an earlier paper about conspiracy theories and support for

free-market economics In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...

as predictors of a

climate change denial Climate change denial, or global warming denial, is denial, dismissal, or doubt that contradicts the scientific consensus on climate change, including the extent to which it is caused by humans, its effects on nature and human society, or th ...

stance. In March 2014, Frontiers retracted the study, and it made a statement that they had received "a small number of complaints". Their detailed investigation "did not identify any issues with the academic and ethical aspects of the study. It did, however, determine that the legal context is insufficiently clear and therefore Frontiers wishes to retract the published article;" the

DeSmogBlog DeSmog, (formerly The DeSmogBlog) founded in January 2006, is an international journalism organization that focuses on topics related to climate change. DeSmog's emphasis is investigating and reporting on misinformation campaigns and organizatio ...

said that the main legal concern was whether it was potentially defamatory for the paper to link climate change denialism to conspiracy theorists. There were public concerns about the "chilling effect" of the decision on research. On 4 April 2014 Costanza Zucca, editorial director of the journal, and Fred Fenter, executive editor, issued a statement saying that Frontiers did not cave in to threats, and it in fact received no threats. The statement gave the main reason for retraction as insufficient protection for the rights of the studied subjects. There was public discussion about apparent contradictions between the statements issued by the journal. And the authors of the paper disputed points raised in the second statement. Frontiers Media was included in

Jeffrey Beall Jeffrey Beall is an American librarian and library scientist, best known for drawing attention to " predatory open access publishing", a term he coined, and for creating what is now widely known as Beall's list, a list of potentially predatory ...

's list of "potential, possible, or probable predatory publishers" before Beall took the decision to shut down his website, though both

COPE The cope (known in Latin as ''pluviale'' 'rain coat' or ''cappa'' 'cape') is a liturgical vestment, more precisely a long mantle or cloak, open in front and fastened at the breast with a band or clasp. It may be of any liturgical colour. A c ...

and

OASPA The Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA) is a non-profit trade association of open access journal and book publishers. Having started with an exclusive focus on open access journals, it has since expanded its activities to include ...

have stated that they have no concerns with Frontiers' membership of their organizations.

References

External links

* {{Official website Psychology journals English-language journals Publications established in 2010 Creative Commons-licensed journals Frontiers Media academic journals