Frontiers Research Foundation
Encyclopedia
The Frontiers Research Foundation is a Swiss
not-for-profit open access academic publisher
that proposes a new "equal opportunity publishing" model, "The Frontiers Tier Model". The Foundation's mission is to support free and open dissemination of research results worldwide.
The journals were launched in 2008 by Henry and Kamila Markram, scientists at the EPFL in Switzerland, beginning with Frontiers in Neuroscience. The journals charge authors €2,000 (US$2,500) to publish after peer review, and discounts and waivers are available. By the middle of 2010, the journals had published over 2000 papers.
Research articles published in Tier 1 journals that are frequently read by the scientific community and general public are eligible for consideration for the next tier of the journal, which comprises the "field journals". These currently comprise:
As a result of the automatic Frontiers Evaluation System, the top 10% articles in a tier are democratically selected for republication as prestigious higher tier articles. At Tier 2 level, they are referred to as either Focused Reviews or Frontiers Commentaries. The authors of the selected articles are therefore invited to revise their research article in a review style focused on the original discovery and with the support of the Frontiers peer review. Focused Reviews and Frontiers Commentaries aim at the broader audience of a field community and are published quarterly in the prestigious Tier 2 sections of Field Journals.
Ultimately there will be 4 tiers. The system is purposely designed to gradually distill the most outstanding research through the succession of the Frontiers tiers, evaluated democratically for its academic excellence and social relevance. While climbing up the tier journal system, the research gains more and more visibility and addresses an increasingly broader public.
Reviewers are anonymous during review but are named on the published paper. The rating system post-publication is largely automated and real-time. In 2010, the publisher filed a business method patent
for their review and publishing system.
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
not-for-profit open access academic publisher
Academic publishing
Academic publishing describes the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in journal article, book or thesis form. The part of academic written output that is not formally published but merely printed up or posted is often called...
that proposes a new "equal opportunity publishing" model, "The Frontiers Tier Model". The Foundation's mission is to support free and open dissemination of research results worldwide.
The journals were launched in 2008 by Henry and Kamila Markram, scientists at the EPFL in Switzerland, beginning with Frontiers in Neuroscience. The journals charge authors €2,000 (US$2,500) to publish after peer review, and discounts and waivers are available. By the middle of 2010, the journals had published over 2000 papers.
Publishing model
Frontiers publishes many specialist journals in many areas of medical sciences. It implements a tiered system for publishing. When articles are first accepted for publication in Frontiers, they are published in the appropriate online specialty section or "specialty journal", as Tier 1 articles.Research articles published in Tier 1 journals that are frequently read by the scientific community and general public are eligible for consideration for the next tier of the journal, which comprises the "field journals". These currently comprise:
Medicine
- Frontiers in Endocrinology
- Frontiers in Immunology
- Frontiers in Neurology
- Frontiers in Oncology
- Frontiers in Psychiatry
Science
- Frontiers in Genetics
- Frontiers in Microbiology
- Frontiers in Neuroscience
- Frontiers in Pharmacology
- Frontiers in Physiology
- Frontiers in Plant Science
- Frontiers in Psychology
As a result of the automatic Frontiers Evaluation System, the top 10% articles in a tier are democratically selected for republication as prestigious higher tier articles. At Tier 2 level, they are referred to as either Focused Reviews or Frontiers Commentaries. The authors of the selected articles are therefore invited to revise their research article in a review style focused on the original discovery and with the support of the Frontiers peer review. Focused Reviews and Frontiers Commentaries aim at the broader audience of a field community and are published quarterly in the prestigious Tier 2 sections of Field Journals.
Ultimately there will be 4 tiers. The system is purposely designed to gradually distill the most outstanding research through the succession of the Frontiers tiers, evaluated democratically for its academic excellence and social relevance. While climbing up the tier journal system, the research gains more and more visibility and addresses an increasingly broader public.
Reviewers are anonymous during review but are named on the published paper. The rating system post-publication is largely automated and real-time. In 2010, the publisher filed a business method patent
Business method patent
Business method patents are a class of patents which disclose and claim new methods of doing business. This includes new types of e-commerce, insurance, banking, tax compliance etc. Business method patents are a relatively new species of patent and there have been several reviews investigating the...
for their review and publishing system.
See also
- Open Access Scholarly Publishers AssociationOpen Access Scholarly Publishers AssociationThe Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association is an industry association which aims to promote open access publishing and to establish best practices in the field...
, of which the Frontiers Research Foundation is a member