Journal profile · ZOOLOGY
Frontiers in Zoology
ISSN 1742-9994 · BioMed Central · ENGLAND · Annual · Founded 2004
Frontiers in Zoology: CAS Zone 2 · Biology (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 2.8; fully open access; APC about USD 3,190; median 139 days to acceptance (83 articles, last 24 months); 40 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Frontiers in Zoology is published by BioMed Central and is in Zone 2 of Biology in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Animal Behavior and Reproduction, Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research and Amphibian and Reptile Biology, together about 25.9% of its articles. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Frontiers in Zoology is an open access, peer-reviewed online journal publishing high quality research articles and reviews on all aspects of animal life. As a biological discipline, zoology has one of the longest histories. Today it occasionally appears as though, due to the rapid expansion of life sciences, zoology has been replaced by more or less independent sub-disciplines amongst which exchange is often sparse. However, the recent advance of molecular methodology into "classical" fields of biology, and the development of theories that can explain phenomena on different levels of organisation, has led to a re-integration of zoological disciplines promoting a broader than usual approach to zoological questions. Zoology has re-emerged as an integrative discipline encompassing the most diverse aspects of animal life, from the level of the gene to the level of the ecosystem. Frontiers in Zoology is the first open access journal focusing on zoology as a whole. It aims to represent and re-unite the various disciplines that look at animal life from different perspectives and at providing the basis for a comprehensive understanding of zoological phenomena on all levels of analysis. Frontiers in Zoology provides a unique opportunity to publish high quality research and reviews on zoological issues that will be internationally accessible to any reader at no cost. The journal was initiated and is supported by the Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft, one of the largest national zoological societies with more than a century-long tradition in promoting high-level zoological research.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): ZOOLOGY
Editor-in-chief Stefan RichterPublisher website
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Animal Behavior and ReproductionAgricultural and Biological Sciences14.2%
- Neurobiology and Insect Physiology ResearchNeuroscience6%
- Amphibian and Reptile BiologyEnvironmental Science5.7%
- Insect and Arachnid Ecology and BehaviorBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology5.2%
- Avian ecology and behaviorEnvironmental Science5.1%
- Developmental Biology and Gene RegulationBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology4.6%
- Primate Behavior and EcologyPsychology4.5%
- Physiological and biochemical adaptationsEnvironmental Science4.2%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Biology Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Biology | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Zoology | Zone 1 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Biology Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Biology | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Zoology | Zone 1 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Biology Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Biology | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Zoology | Zone 1 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIEScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
CASPublisher website
Other: Google Scholar, ProQuest, Dimensions, CNKI, Baidu, AGRICOLA, Naver, OCLC, Portico, CLOCKSS
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
- 2.8LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 2.8Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 2.9Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 4.8LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.83LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.25LetPub ·
- h-index
- 50LetPub ·
- h-index
- 97OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 734OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 2.77OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 3.6%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 38LetPub ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 1,000,000Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 957 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 40 | 40 | 6 |
| 2025 | 40 | 40 | 106 |
| 2024 | 32 | 32 | 198 |
| 2023 | 41 | 41 | 370 |
| 2022 | 33 | 33 | 472 |
| 2021 | 61 | 61 | 1,131 |
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 Crossref · to
139 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 96 days – 201 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 18 days (83 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 155 days
- Sample
- 83 articles with submission and acceptance dates (87 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)
- over 12 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 8 daysPublisher website ·
- 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 | EUR 2,690 / USD 3,190 / GBP 2,290 | Yes | CC BY, CC0 | |
| OpenAlex | USD 3,090 / EUR 2,590 / GBP 2,190 | — | — | |
| LetPub | GBP 2,090 / USD 2,990 / EUR 2,490 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | GBP 2,290 / USD 3,190 / EUR 2,690 | — | — |
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 prepare2 items from the author guidelines
- Reference style
- Numbered, in order of citation
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
Article types accepted6
- commentaryFormatting guidelines for specific article types can be found below. Commentary Debate Hypothesis Methodology Research ReviewLength not stated
- debateFormatting guidelines for specific article types can be found below. Commentary Debate Hypothesis Methodology Research ReviewLength not stated
- hypothesisFormatting guidelines for specific article types can be found below. Commentary Debate Hypothesis Methodology Research ReviewLength not stated
- methodologyFormatting guidelines for specific article types can be found below. Commentary Debate Hypothesis Methodology Research ReviewLength not stated
- researchFormatting guidelines for specific article types can be found below. Commentary Debate Hypothesis Methodology Research ReviewLength not stated
- reviewFormatting guidelines for specific article types can be found below. Commentary Debate Hypothesis Methodology Research ReviewLength not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review
- Authorship
Manuscripts must be submitted by an author, not a third party. Model summary
Please note that a manuscript can only be submitted by an author of the manuscript and may not be submitted by a third party.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Formatting the 'Availability of data and materials' section of your manuscript
CC0 data policy; CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication waiver applies to all published data. Model summary
The following format for the 'Availability of data and materials section of your manuscript should be used:
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Licensing and copyright
Open access under CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence). Model summary
Creative Commons licences Open access articles in Springer Nature journals are published under Creative Commons licences. These provide an industry-standard framework to support easy re-use of open access material. Under Creative Commons licences, authors retain copyright of their articles. Frontiers in Zoology articles are published open access under a CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Inte…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Benefits of open access
APC waivers/discounts for corresponding authors from the world's lowest income countries; other requests considered case-by-case. Model summary
Publishing open access (OA) offers a number of benefits, including greater reach and readership for your work: Cited more 1.6x more citations of OA articles than non-OA articles across all subjects Downloaded more 4x more downloads of OA articles than non-OA articles Greater impact 2.5x more Altmetric attention. OA articles attracted 1.9x more news mentions and 1.2x more policy mentions Open acces…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Peer review is the process used to evaluate the quality of a manuscript before publication. Independent researchers in the relevant field assess submitted manuscripts to check their validity and robustness. Their feedback guides editors in making publication decisions. Typically, two or more experts evaluate each manuscript based on three main criteria: scientific robustness: is the research metho…
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
- BioMed Central
- Country or region
- ENGLAND
- Language
- English
- Frequency
- Annual
- Founded
- 2004
- ISSN
- 1742-9994
- 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 Zoology
What CAS zone is Frontiers in Zoology in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Frontiers in Zoology is in Zone 2 of Biology, and in Zone 1 of the minor category Zoology. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 2 of Biology. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Frontiers in Zoology?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 2.8; CiteScore 4.8, h-index 97.
How long does peer review take at Frontiers in Zoology?
Based on the dates recorded on 83 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 139 days (interquartile range 96–201 days); authors report an average review time of over 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.
What are the manuscript requirements of Frontiers in Zoology?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Reference style: Numbered, in order of citation; Suggested reviewers: Optional. 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.
Which databases index Frontiers in Zoology?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Frontiers in Zoology is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists CAS; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Frontiers in Zoology open access, and what is the APC?
Frontiers in Zoology is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 3,190.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, DOAJ, Publisher website; 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: .