''Frontiers in Psychology'' is a
peer-reviewed
Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...
open-access academic journal
An academic journal (or scholarly journal or scientific journal) is a periodical publication in which Scholarly method, scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. They serve as permanent and transparent forums for the ...
covering all aspects of
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
. It was established in 2010 and is published by
Frontiers Media, a controversial company that is included in
Jeffrey Beall's list of "potential, possible, or probable
predatory publishers".
The
editor-in-chief
An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...
is
Axel Cleeremans (
Université libre de Bruxelles).
Abstracting and indexing
The journal is abstracted and indexed in
Current Contents/Social & Behavioral Sciences,
,
PsycINFO, and
Scopus
Scopus is a scientific abstract and citation database, launched by the academic publisher Elsevier as a competitor to older Web of Science in 2004. The ensuing competition between the two databases has been characterized as "intense" and is c ...
.
The journal has a 2022
impact factor
The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of an academic journal is a type of journal ranking. Journals with higher impact factor values are considered more prestigious or important within their field.
The Impact Factor of a journa ...
of 3.8.
Since 2016, the journal has a score of 2 in the
Norwegian Scientific Index, which "covers the most prestigious and rigorous channels". However, this listing was revised in 2023 to the X list which marks publication channels where there is doubt as to whether they should be approved or not and which The National Board of Scholarly Publishing and The Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills wants feedback from the research community.
Controversies
In February 2013, ''Frontiers in Psychology'' published a
study by
Stephan Lewandowsky and co-authors which analysed the
conspiracy theories offered by the climate blog readers who responded to his
2012 paper about public opinion on climate change. In March 2014, Frontiers retracted the study, indicating that while they "did not identify any issues with the academic and ethical aspects of the study" they believed that "the legal context is insufficiently clear".
DeSmogBlog said that the main legal concern was whether it was potentially defamatory for the paper to link climate change denialism to conspiracy theorists.
There were public concerns about the "chilling effect" of the decision on research.
On 4 April 2014, Frontiers said they retracted the 2013 Lewandowsky article because the authors did not sufficiently protect the rights of people analyzed and named in the article: "Specifically, the article categorizes the behaviour of identifiable individuals within the context of psychopathological characteristics." An
Ars Technica article discussed the controversy, including "apparent contradictions" between Frontiers' March 2014 retraction and their April 2014 statement.
Due in part to this incident, Frontiers Media was included in
Jeffrey Beall's list of "potential, possible, or probable predatory publishers" before Beall decided to shut down his website,
though both the
Committee on Publication Ethics and the
Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association have stated that they have no concerns with Frontiers' membership of their organizations.
References
External links
* {{Official website
Psychology journals
English-language journals
Academic journals established in 2010
Creative Commons Attribution-licensed journals
Frontiers Media academic journals