Journal profile · COMMUNICATION
Frontiers in Communication
ISSN 2297-900X · Frontiers Media S.A. · Switzerland
Frontiers in Communication: CAS Zone 2 · Literature (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 2 (journal website); fully open access; APC charged, amount not published; review about 14 weeks (community reports); 386 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Frontiers in Communication is published by Frontiers Media S.A. and is in Zone 2 of Literature in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Misinformation and Its Impacts, Climate Change Communication and Perception and Media Influence and Health, together about 25.2% of its articles. Its main subfields are Sociology and Political Science and Communication. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Frontiers in Communication is a multidisciplinary journal that focuses on advancing communication developments across society and culture, in areas including politics, health, media and industry, science and environment. Led by Field Chief Editor Prof Justin Lewis (Cardiff University, UK), this Scopus and DOAJ indexed journal welcomes research contributions in all areas of communication that advance our understanding of communication technologies and bridge the gap between theory and practice. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: advertising and marketing communication culture and communication disaster communications health communication language communication media, creative, and cultural industries media governance and the public sphere multimodality of communication organizational communication science and environmental communication visual communication. Frontiers in Communication is a cross-disciplinary journal that seeks to develop understanding of the rapidly-changing global communication revolution and its relevance across social, economic and cultural spheres. Submissions that focus on new areas, such as multimodality of communication, advertising, and the creative industries are of particular interest. Manuscripts that focus solely on business management, industrial processes, or economic theory without a relevance to communication studies are not suitable for publication in this journal. Similarly, studies that are purely statistical or methodological, without applying the methods to analyze communication phenomena, are also outside the scope of this journal. Frontiers in Communication is committed to advancing developments in the field of communication by allowing unrestricted access to articles, and communicating scientific knowledge to researchers and the public alike, to enable the scientific breakthroughs of the future. Frontiers in Communication is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): COMMUNICATION
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United States 3, New Zealand 3, United Kingdom 2, Germany 2, Austria 2 (15 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Misinformation and Its ImpactsSocial Sciences9.3%
- Climate Change Communication and PerceptionSocial Sciences9.3%
- Media Influence and HealthArts and Humanities6.6%
- Language, Metaphor, and CognitionPsychology6%
- Social Media and PoliticsSocial Sciences5.6%
- Digital Marketing and Social MediaSocial Sciences5.6%
- Language, Discourse, Communication StrategiesArts and Humanities5.4%
- Media Studies and CommunicationSocial Sciences5.3%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Literature Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Literature | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Communication | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Literature Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Literature | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Communication | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
Database indexing
ESCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
Web of SciencePublisher 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 (publisher)
- 2Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 2.9LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 2.9Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.47LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 0.98LetPub ·
- h-index
- 57OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 541OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 2.4OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 5%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 357LetPub ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 2,333 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 477 | 477 | 146 |
| 2025 | 386 | 386 | 1,242 |
| 2024 | 302 | 302 | 1,413 |
| 2023 | 274 | 274 | 2,023 |
| 2022 | 318 | 318 | 2,741 |
| 2021 | 277 | 277 | 4,374 |
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
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 14 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 1,175 | Yes | CC BY | |
| OpenAlex | CHF 1,175 | — | — | |
| LetPub | USD 1,285 | 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 prepare3 items from the author guidelines
- Keywords
- 5–8
- Reference style
- Harvard
- Templates
- LaTeX and Word
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
Figures, tables, and images published under CC-BY; permission required for copyrighted material from other sources. 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 ·- Open access 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 ·- Peer review Peer review
CrossMark policy to maintain published content and alert readers to changes. Model summary
Our rigorous, transparent peer review process combines expert review and constructive dialogue to strengthen your manuscript.
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
- 2297-900X
- 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 Communication
What CAS zone is Frontiers in Communication in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Frontiers in Communication is in Zone 2 of Literature, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Communication. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 2 of Literature. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Frontiers in Communication?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 2; this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 2.9, h-index 57.
How long does peer review take at Frontiers in Communication?
Authors report an average review time of about 14 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.
What are the manuscript requirements of Frontiers in Communication?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Keywords: 5–8; Reference style: Harvard; Templates: LaTeX and Word. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Where are the editorial board members of Frontiers in Communication based?
Of the 15 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (3), New Zealand (3) and United Kingdom (2). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Frontiers in Communication?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Frontiers in Communication is indexed in ESCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists Web of Science; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Frontiers in Communication open access, and what is the APC?
Frontiers in Communication 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 2026-08-26). Last updated: .