Journal profile · BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES-NEUROSCIENCES
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
ISSN 1662-5153 · Frontiers Media S.A. · SWITZERLAND
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience: CAS Zone 4 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 3.45; fully open access; APC charged, amount not published; median 71 days to acceptance (109 articles, last 24 months); 156 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience is published by Frontiers Media S.A. and is in Zone 4 of Medicine in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Memory and Neural Mechanisms, Stress Responses and Cortisol and Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior, together about 32.3% of its articles. Its main subfields are Cognitive Neuroscience and Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience is a leading multidisciplinary journal that focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying human and animal behavioral outcomes. Led by Field Chief Editor Prof Nuno Sousa (Centro Universitário de Jaguariúna, UniFAJ, Jaguariúna, Brazil), Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience publishes major insights into the neural mechanisms of animal and human behavior, and welcomes articles studying the interplay between behavior and its neurobiological basis at all levels. The journal is indexed in PubMed Central (PMC), Scopus, Web of Science Science (SCIE), and DOAJ. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience is also a partner journal of the Mediterranean Neuroscience Society (MNS), sharing its mission to promote scientific excellence, education, and collaboration across the neuroscience community in the Mediterranean region and beyond. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience welcomes work in all animal species, including humans, that contributes to unravelling the mechanisms underlying behavioral outcomes. Key research areas covered by the journal include, but are not limited to: behavioral endocrinology emotion regulation and processing individual and social behaviors learning and memory motivation and reward pathological conditions. The journal is particularly interested in submissions that incorporate integrative and translational approaches, as in recent years, translational work based on both animal and human studies has driven outstanding progress in the field of psychopathology. Molecular biology and genetics, morphological, biochemical, neurochemical, electrophysiological, neuroendocrine, pharmacological, and neuroimaging studies are also encouraged. In particular, the journal welcomes submissions which support and advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), notably SDG 3: ensuring healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. Manuscripts that focus solely on clinical or medical aspects of health, without a foundation in behavioral neuroscience, are not suitable for publication in this journal. Studies that are purely descriptive or lack a clear hypothesis testing are also not appropriate. Furthermore, research that does not provide a comprehensive understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying behavior will not be considered. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience is committed to advancing developments in the field by allowing unrestricted access to articles and communicating scientific knowledge t
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES-NEUROSCIENCES
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United States 6, Italy 4, Germany 3, Brazil 2, France 1 (17 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Memory and Neural MechanismsNeuroscience12.4%
- Stress Responses and CortisolNeuroscience10.4%
- Neuroendocrine regulation and behaviorPsychology9.4%
- Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology ResearchNeuroscience8.8%
- Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on BehaviorNeuroscience6.9%
- Neural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesNeuroscience6.2%
- Neural dynamics and brain functionNeuroscience5.7%
- Neurobiology and Insect Physiology ResearchNeuroscience5.1%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Medicine Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Behavioral Sciences | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Neurosciences | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Behavioral Sciences | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Neurosciences | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Medicine Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Behavioral Sciences | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Neurosciences | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIEScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
Web of SciencePMCEmbasePsycINFOPublisher website
Other: EBSCO, ProQuest, Dimensions, CNKI, CLOCKSS, Crossref
As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor
- 3.45LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher)
- 3.4Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 6.9LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 6.9Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.08LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.1LetPub ·
- h-index
- 58LetPub ·
- h-index
- 141OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 3,058OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 3.6OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 0%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 143LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 5,379 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 165 | 165 | 59 |
| 2025 | 156 | 156 | 468 |
| 2024 | 179 | 179 | 1,272 |
| 2023 | 299 | 299 | 3,112 |
| 2022 | 556 | 556 | 8,067 |
| 2021 | 368 | 368 | 7,436 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with PubMed · to
71 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 47 days – 121 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 21 days (109 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 93 days
- Sample
- 109 articles with submission and acceptance dates (346 in the window); the latest was accepted on
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Average review time (community reports)
- 6–12 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 14 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Single anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | CHF 3,150 | Yes | CC BY | |
| OpenAlex | CHF 3,150 | — | — | |
| LetPub | USD 3,295 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | Yes, amount not published | — | — |
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare1 items from the author guidelines
- Keywords
- 5–8
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAI use, Conflicts of interest, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review
- AI use Use of AI to create written or visual content
Authors should not list a generative AI technology as a co-author or author of any submitted manuscript. Generative AI technologies cannot be held accountable for all aspects of a manuscript and consequently do not meet the criteria required for authorship. If the author of a submitted manuscript has used written or visual content produced by or edited using a generative AI technology, this use mu…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Safeguards against financial conflicts of interest
Only leading researchers acting as Associate Editors, who are not part of Frontiers' staff, can make acceptance decisions based on reviews performed by external experts acting as Community Reviewers or Reviewers. None have a financial incentive to accept articles, i.e. they are not paid for their role as Associate Editor or community Reviewer, and any award scheme is not linked to acceptances of m…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Open access and copyright
All Frontiers' articles from July 2012 onwards are published with open access under the Creative Commons CC-BY license (the current version is CC-BY, version 4.0). This means that the author(s) retains copyright, but the content is free to download, distribute, and adapt for commercial or non-commercial purposes, given appropriate attribution to the original article. Upon submission, the author(s)…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open access and copyright
Open access under CC-BY license (version 4.0) for articles from July 2012 onwards; authors retain copyright. Model summary
All Frontiers' articles from July 2012 onwards are published with open access under the Creative Commons CC-BY license (the current version is CC-BY, version 4.0). This means that the author(s) retains copyright, but the content is free to download, distribute, and adapt for commercial or non-commercial purposes, given appropriate attribution to the original article. Upon submission, the author(s)…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review
Manuscripts must meet international English language standards; optional external language editing services recommended. Model summary
Frontiers requires manuscripts submitted to meet international English language standards to be considered for publication.
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media S.A.
- Country or region
- SWITZERLAND
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 1662-5153
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
What CAS zone is Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience is in Zone 4 of Medicine, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Behavioral Sciences / Neurosciences. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Medicine. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 3.45; CiteScore 6.9, h-index 141.
How long does peer review take at Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience?
Based on the dates recorded on 109 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 71 days (interquartile range 47–121 days); authors report an average review time of 6–12 weeks. Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
Where are the editorial board members of Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience based?
Of the 17 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (6), Italy (4) and Germany (3). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists Web of Science, PMC, Embase and PsycINFO; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience open access, and what is the APC?
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience is a fully open-access journal. APC charged, amount not published.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, Publisher website, DOAJ; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-25). Last updated: .