Journal profile · Computer Science-Computer Networks and Communications
Future Internet
ISSN 1999-5903 · Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) · Switzerland
Future Internet: CAS Zone 4 · Computer Science (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 4.6 (journal website); JCR Q2 (journal website); fully open access; APC charged, amount not published; review about 11 weeks (community reports); 598 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Future Internet is published by Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) and is in Zone 4 of Computer Science in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are IoT and Edge/Fog Computing, Blockchain Technology Applications and Security and Network Security and Intrusion Detection, together about 29.6% of its articles. Its main subfields are Computer Networks and Communications. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Macro-Area 1: Smart System Technologies and Architecture Included topics are: advanced communications network infrastructures evolution of internet basic services internet of things netted peripheral sensors industrial internet centralized and distributed data centers embedded computing cloud computing software defined network functions and network virtualization cloud-let and fog-computing big data, open data and analytical tools cyber-physical systems network and distributed operating systems web services semantic structures and related software tools artificial and augmented intelligence augmented reality system interoperability and flexible service composition smart mission-critical system architectures smart terminals and applications pro-sumer tools for application design and development cyber security compliance privacy compliance reliability compliance dependability compliance accountability compliance trust compliance technical quality of basic services Macro-Area 2: Smart Systems and Applications Included topics are: smart mobility and transportation systems smart utility systems smart energy systems smart living places smart public government systems smart health-care systems smart systems for public security and safety smart social assistance systems smart geo-information and environmental monitoring systems smart information-communications-knowledge delivery social systems smart learning systems smart manufacturing lines smart liquid-enterprises smart financial, payments and insurance systems smart leisure systems smart systems for cultural heritage conservation and fruition smart city application of new socio-economic systemic models for net-Living Macro-Area 3: Human-Centered Networked Systems Included topics are as follows: human-computer interaction and usability subjective human and social factors for well-being through networks end-user-centered design social inclusion and cohesion enabling approaches lifestyle-based personalization and optimization quality of experience living labs metaverse industrial metaverse society 5.0
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Computer Science-Computer Networks and Communications
Editorial board by country: 2 in mainland China (about 6%); most named Italy 14, United States 7, Mainland China 2, Germany 2, Spain 2 (34 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- IoT and Edge/Fog ComputingComputer Science13%
- Blockchain Technology Applications and SecurityComputer Science8.5%
- Network Security and Intrusion DetectionComputer Science8.2%
- Software-Defined Networks and 5GComputer Science6%
- Advanced Malware Detection TechniquesComputer Science5.8%
- Caching and Content DeliveryComputer Science5.1%
- Cloud Computing and Resource ManagementComputer Science4.7%
- Privacy-Preserving Technologies in DataComputer Science4.1%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Computer Science Zone 4
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Computer Science | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Computer Science, Information Systems | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Computer Science Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Computer Science | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Computer Science, Information Systems | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
JCR / CiteScore quartiles on the journal's website
- JCR Q2 · Computer Science, Information Systems
- CiteScore Q1 · Computer Networks and Communications
Publisher-reported: JCR figures are Clarivate's and CiteScore figures Scopus's to confirm; both are a different system from the CAS zones.Publisher website
Database indexing
ESCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
EI CompendexWeb of ScienceINSPECDBLPPublisher 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
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 4.6Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 3.9Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 10LetPub ·
- CiteScore (publisher)
- 10Publisher website ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.85LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.51LetPub ·
- h-index
- 108OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 1,526OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 6.96OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 4.3%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 99.93%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 592LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 2,025Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 3,702 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 507 | 507 | 341 |
| 2025 | 598 | 598 | 4,140 |
| 2024 | 472 | 472 | 6,497 |
| 2023 | 401 | 401 | 9,374 |
| 2022 | 389 | 389 | 8,117 |
| 2021 | 332 | 332 | 8,797 |
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 11 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 15 daysPublisher website ·
- Acceptance to publication
- 3.7 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 6 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 1,600 | Yes | CC BY | |
| OpenAlex | CHF 1,600 | — | — | |
| LetPub | CHF 1,600 | 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 prepare6 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≤ 200 words
- Reference style
- Author–date
- Templates
- LaTeX and Word
- Suggested reviewers
- Required, 3
- Graphical abstract
- Optional
- Cover letter
- Required
Article types accepted18
- book reviewAll Article Types Article Review Communication Editorial Abstract Book Review Brief Communication Brief Report Case Report Clinicopathological Challenge Comment…Length not stated
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- case reportAll Article Types Article Review Communication Editorial Abstract Book Review Brief Communication Brief Report Case Report Clinicopathological Challenge Comment…Length not stated
- commentaryAll Article Types Article Review Communication Editorial Abstract Book Review Brief Communication Brief Report Case Report Clinicopathological Challenge Comment…Length not stated
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- systematic reviewAll Article Types Article Review Communication Editorial Abstract Book Review Brief Communication Brief Report Case Report Clinicopathological Challenge Comment…Length not stated
- technical noteAll Article Types Article Review Communication Editorial Abstract Book Review Brief Communication Brief Report Case Report Clinicopathological Challenge Comment…Length not stated
- tutorialAll Article Types Article Review Communication Editorial Abstract Book Review Brief Communication Brief Report Case Report Clinicopathological Challenge Comment…Length not stated
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Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Conflicts of interest, Data availability, Publication ethics, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review, Preprints
- Authorship Authorship
MDPI follows the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines which state that, in order to qualify for authorship of a manuscript, the following criteria should be observed: Make substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work, or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; Draft the work or review it critically for important intel…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Conflicts of interest Conflicts of Interest
According to The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, “Authors should avoid entering into agreements with study sponsors, both for-profit and non-profit, that interfere with authors’ access to all of the study’s data or that interfere with their ability to analyze and interpret the data and to prepare and publish manuscripts independently when and where they choose.” All authors mus…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Data availability statements
Data availability statements are required for all articles published with MDPI. During the peer review and editorial decision process, authors can be asked to share existing datasets or raw data that have been analyzed in the manuscript, and whether they will be made available to other researchers following publication. Authors will also be asked for the details of any existing datasets that have …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics Publication Ethics Statement
Future Internet is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). We fully adhere to its Code of Conduct and to its Best Practice Guidelines. The editors of this journal enforce a rigorous peer review process together with strict ethical policies and standards to ensure to add high quality scientific works to the field of scholarly publication. Unfortunately, cases of plagiarism, data fal…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Copyright / Open Access
Articles published in Future Internet will be Open-Access articles distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The copyright is retained by the author(s). MDPI will insert the following note at the end of the published text: © 2026 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the term…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Open access publication fees
If you transfer your manuscript to another open access (OA) journal, you will be charged an Article Processing Charge (APC) if your article is accepted for publication. The APC for each journal can be found on the individual journal’s website. For more information about APCs, please see here.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Editorial Process and Peer Review
All submissions are thoroughly peer-reviewed by experts within the field and undergo a structured editorial workflow designed to ensure quality, transparency, and scientific integrity. The full editorial procedure is available on the Editorial Process page and is also provided below. Pre-check Pre-check consists of a technical pre-check performed by the Editorial Office and an editorial pre-check …
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints Preprints and Conference Papers
Future Internet accepts submissions that have previously been made available as preprints provided that they have not undergone peer review. A preprint is a draft version of a paper made available online before submission to a journal. MDPI operates Preprints, a preprint server to which submitted papers can be uploaded directly after completing journal submission. Note that Preprints operates inde…
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
- Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
- Country or region
- Switzerland
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 1999-5903
- Latest issue on the website
- Volume 18 (2026)
- 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 Future Internet
What CAS zone is Future Internet in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Future Internet is in Zone 4 of Computer Science, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Computer Science, Information Systems. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Computer Science. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Future Internet?
The journal's website gives an impact factor of 4.6 (2025); this is the journal's own figure, as LetPub lists none for it; CiteScore 10, h-index 108.
How long does peer review take at Future Internet?
Authors report an average review time of about 11 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 JCR quartile is Future Internet in?
The journal's website gives JCR Q2; by category, Computer Science, Information Systems Q2. JCR quartiles are Clarivate's to confirm and a different system from the CAS zones; in the CAS ranking the journal is in Zone 4 of Computer Science.
What are the manuscript requirements of Future Internet?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 200 words; Reference style: Author–date; Templates: LaTeX and Word; Suggested reviewers: Required, 3; Graphical abstract: Optional; Cover letter: Required. 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 Future Internet based?
Of the 34 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 2 (about 6%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are Italy (14), United States (7) and Mainland China (2). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Future Internet?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Future Internet is indexed in ESCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists EI Compendex, Web of Science, INSPEC and DBLP; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Future Internet open access, and what is the APC?
Future Internet is a fully open-access journal. APC charged, amount not published.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, Publisher website, OpenAlex, 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: .