Journal profile
Frontiers in Ethology
ISSN 2813-5091 · Frontiers Media S.A. · Switzerland
Frontiers in Ethology: fully open access; APC charged, amount not published; review about 15 weeks (community reports); 22 articles in 2025.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Frontiers in Ethology is published by Frontiers Media S.A.. By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies, Animal Behavior and Reproduction and Primate Behavior and Ecology, together about 50% of its articles. Its main subfields are Ecology. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Ethology is the naturalistic study of behavior from an evolutionary perspective and includes research studies on all animals, including humans, and even aspects of plant behavior and communication. Although rooted in natural history and early post-Darwinian biology as well as animal learning and laboratory studies stemming from comparative psychology, ethology now encompasses a broad range of topics, theory, and methodologies focused on understanding the mechanisms, processes, ecology, and evolution of behavior and their application in addressing issues of conservation, animal wellness, agriculture, and other global concerns. While animal behavior is recognized as an important component of research in many areas of biology and psychology, ethology is the major integrating field with behavior as the central focus. Frontiers in Ethology is a new, peer-reviewed, gold open-access journal seeking to serve as a scientifically rigorous and reliable platform for all aspects of ethology. There are many methods now available to record and analyze behavior and associated physiological, genetic, spatial, movement, dietary, reproductive, and other data. The journal accepts papers from field and laboratory settings as well as those from zoo, aquarium, farm, sanctuary, and other captive sites. Rigorous experimental investigations are encouraged in all the specialty areas, as are conceptual, theoretical, review, and modeling studies. We also actively seek and promote papers that are primarily descriptive, ranging from those documenting novel behavior to monographic detailed reports, including those with a comparative focus. Such reports are too often unpublished or languish in obscure venues or gray literature, yet such reports are the bedrock on which the most useful and valid experimental research ultimately resides. This emphasis on the descriptive (ethogram), comparative, and experimental was the foundational innovation that the pioneering ethologists brought to the fore a century ago and which is now bearing its most important scientific fruit, enriching many scientific disciplines. Frontiers in Ethology is international in scope and encourages contributions from all continents and countries. Researchers in all areas, and at any stage of their development, are welcome to both contribute their work as well as aid in editorial activities supporting the journal. We desire work that is carefully formulated, rigorously carried out, adequately presented, and discussed by r
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Editorial board by country: none in mainland China; most named United States 4, Italy 4, Spain 2, Canada 2, France 1 (16 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Animal Behavior and Welfare StudiesVeterinary20.2%
- Animal Behavior and ReproductionAgricultural and Biological Sciences19.3%
- Primate Behavior and EcologyPsychology10.5%
- Human-Animal Interaction StudiesBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology7.1%
- Wildlife Ecology and ConservationEnvironmental Science6.3%
- Evolutionary Psychology and Human BehaviorPsychology4.2%
- Avian ecology and behaviorEnvironmental Science3.8%
- Marine animal studies overviewEnvironmental Science3.4%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
Database indexing
DOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
EBSCO, ProQuest, Dimensions, CNKI, Astrophysics Data System, CLOCKSS, CrossrefPublisher website
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
- h-index
- 8OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 6OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 1.42OpenAlex ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 0%LetPub ·
Volume
- Downloads per year (publisher)
- 72,500Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 97 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 48 | 48 | 91 |
| 2025 | 22 | 22 | 68 |
| 2024 | 15 | 15 | 23 |
| 2023 | 11 | 11 | 3 |
| 2022 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
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 15 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 15 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 1,950 | Yes | CC BY | |
| OpenAlex | CHF 1,950 | — | — | |
| LetPub | USD 2,125 | Yes | — |
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
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
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
- 2813-5091
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗LetPub
- 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 Ethology
How long does peer review take at Frontiers in Ethology?
Authors report an average review time of about 15 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 Ethology?
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 Ethology based?
Of the 16 board members whose country the journal's board page names, none are in mainland China; the countries named most often are United States (4), Italy (4) and Spain (2). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Frontiers in Ethology?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Frontiers in Ethology is indexed in DOAJ.
Is Frontiers in Ethology open access, and what is the APC?
Frontiers in Ethology 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: .