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History

Where it all started

Frontiers was founded in 2007 by Henry Markram and Kamila Markram, two neuroscientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Henry and Kamila launched Frontiers with a vision to make science open, peer-review rigorous, transparent, and efficient and harness the power of technology to truly serve researchers’ needs. 

Initially starting in the field of neuroscience, Frontiers now spans hundreds of academic disciplines and is one of the most cited and largest research publishers in the world. 

Dr Kamila Markram speaks about open science and the vision behind Frontiers at TEDx Brussels in 2017. 

The people behind Frontiers

2007. Frontiers is launched as a not-for-profit foundation, the relying on philanthropic donations to operate. The foundation continues to exist today, supporting purely philanthropic initiatives, including Frontiers for Young Minds and the Frontiers Planet Prize. 

2008. Operations are taken over by Frontiers Media SA, a company created by the founders to enable long-term economic and operational sustainability. The gold open access business model is adopted. 

The same year, Frontiers receives an investment from Kaltroco, the private holding company of the Koltes family. They strongly support the vision to make science open and their investment kick-starts the ensuing growth of Frontiers. 

2013. The Holtzbrinck Publishing Group (at the time, owner of Nature Publishing Group and later majority shareholder of Springer Nature) makes an investment in Frontiers, enabling further growth of the open science vision. The founders remain the main shareholders of Frontiers. The two organizations run as independent businesses.  

Our long-term commitment

The spirit behind Frontiers – shared by its founders, investors, employees, and editorial boards – is a long-term vision to make all of science open. We want to enable society to generate knowledge faster and more efficiently and ultimately accelerate innovation, health, and prosperity for all. 

The fundamental measure of success will be the full transition to open access as the default method of publishing quality-controlled research findings. Thanks to the relentless work of the dedicated people who work at Frontiers, as well as the participation of our research communities, we are confident that together we can make the future of science fully open and accelerate the solutions we need to live healthy lives on a healthy planet. 

Our timeline

  • 2024

    • Milestones

      • 561,000 published articles

      • 3.7 billion article views and downloads

      • 3.4 million total social media mentions and 254,000 total news mentions for articles

      • 670+ institutional partners

    • Innovations

      • Frontiers Planet Prize

        Second international champions awarded in Frontiers Planet Prize ceremony

      • Frontiers for Young Minds Nobel Collection

        A total of 33 Nobel Laureates have taken part in four volumes of the Nobel Collection, connecting award-winning scientists with young readers.

      • World Economic Forum partnership

        For the second year, we collaborated with the World Economic Forum (WEF) on our report, Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2024.

      • AIRA updates

        As part of our three-layered approach to quality and research integrity, our AI review assistant now performs more than 40 quality checks to support teams and editors before peer review.

  • 2023

    • Milestones

      • 489,000 published articles

      • 2.8 billion article views and downloads

      • 1.5 million total social media mentions and 235,000 total news mentions for articles

      • 31 new journals launched in 2023

      • 650+ institutional partners

    • Innovations

      • Frontiers Planet Prize

        First international champions awarded in Frontiers Planet Prize ceremony

      • Frontiers Forum Live 2023

        Our first hybrid Forum with both live and virtual attendees, with keynotes from Prof Johan Rockstrom, Ban Ki-Moon, and Jane Goodall.

      • Flat fee partnerships

        We piloted our first open access flat fee agreements with partners in Europe and North America

      • Open Science Charter

        Our open science charter is launched at COP 28, calling for all publicly funded research to be fully open by 2030.

      • Frontiers in Science

        Our flagship journal Frontiers in Science was launched, focused on scientific advances accelerating solutions to global challenges in human and planetary health.

      • World Economic Forum partnership

        Our report, Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2023 is published in collaboration with the World Economic Forum (WEF).

  • 2022

    • Milestones

      • 398,000 published articles

      • 2.1 billion article views and downloads

      • 1.2 million total social media mentions and 191,000 total news mentions for articles

      • 49 new journals launched in 2022

      • 658 institutional partners

      • National agreements in place with Austria, Finland, Luxembourg, Norway, Qatar, Switzerland, Sweden, and UK

    • Innovations

      • Frontiers Planet Prize

        The prize was launched on Earth Day 2022 to mobilize nations and the global community of scientists conducting research on the planetary boundaries.

      • AIRA update

        We made results from our AI review assistant directly available to our editors and reviewers for the first time, informing and speeding up their own review.

      • Frontiers Discover

        A new platform was launched, allowing review editors more control over the research they choose to review.

      • The Nobel Collection

        10 Nobel Laureates have collaborated on collections for Frontiers for Young Minds, covering science’s role in addressing today’s global challenges

  • 2021

    • Milestones

      • 285,000 published articles

      • 1.5 billion article views and downloads

      • 139 journals

      • 27 new journals launched in 2021

      • 555 institutional members

      • 64 new members in 2021

      • 7 new publishing partnerships

    • National deals

      • New open access publishing agreement with Luxembourg

    • Awards

    • Innovations

      • Artificial intelligence review assistant (AIRA) updates

        New checks to validate the quality of the paper before it enters peer review, including image manipulation and research checks, as well as an improved scope classifier to recommend the most suited section and journal for manuscripts

      • Reviewer recommendation updates

        Reviewer recommendations improved with an updated selection algorithm

      • Live chat in review forum

        Latest support feature for our authors, editors, and reviewers during the peer review for selected journals

      • Frontiers for Young Minds Nobel Collection

        Five Nobel Prize winners collaborate on a collection for Frontiers for Young Minds covering science’s role in addressing today’s global challenges

  • 2020

    • Milestones

      • 200,000 articles published

      • 1 billion article views and downloads

      • 27 journals launched

      • 77 new institutional members

      • 4 new publishing partnerships

      • New open access publishing agreement with Norway

    • Innovations

      • Publishing partnerships program

        Frontiers' publishing platform and expertise made available to societies and institutions, enabling their transition to open access

      • Artificial intelligence review assistant (AIRA) updates

        New checks added to detect image manipulation and to evaluate if a manuscript has been submitted to the appropriate section and journal

  • 2019

    • Milestones

    • Events

    • Integrations

    • Innovations

      • Website search

        Search functionality rebuilt making it easier to find content – articles, collections, journals, and people – and helping to raise the visibility of research

      • Artificial intelligence review assistant (AIRA) updates

        Improved reviewer suggestions and new automated checks to help assess article quality

  • 2018

  • 2017

  • 2016

  • 2015

  • 2013

  • 2014

  • 2012

    • Milestones

      • 5,000 articles published

    • 2 new journals launched

    • Innovations

      • Frontiers' research network

        Profiles enriched with ability to connect with and stay up-to-date with researchers and content

  • 2011

    • Milestones

      • 20,000 editorial board members

    • Innovations

      • Author-level metrics

        Article views and downloads on all articles aggregated at author level

  • 2010

  • 2009

    • Innovations

      • Research Topics

        Frontiers introduces the concept of Research Topics, themed article collections around trending research and organized by leading researchers

  • 2008

    • Milestones

      • Gold open access business model is adopted

      • The open access journal series

        Frontiers in Neuroscience, opens for article submissions

      • First investment from Kaltroco

        The private holding vehicle of the Koltes family, kick-starting growth. A Kaltroco representative is appointed to the board of directors

    • Innovations

      • Online publishing platform

        Frontiers builds an IT platform to manage author registration, article submissions, review, publication and evaluation. The Frontiers publishing platform includes, amongst other features:

      • Collaborative review forum

        an innovative online platform for peer-review, engaging authors and reviewers in a structured online dialogue, and allowing for fast article processing

      • Article-level metrics

        a new and objective way to measure the impact of research discoveries. Frontiers is the first publisher to launch quantitative article metrics based on views and downloads of articles

  • 2007

    • Milestones

      • First registered user during closed beta

      • 17 articles are submitted to Frontiers in Neuroscience and published during closed beta

      • Frontiers is founded by Henry and Kamila Markram, two neuroscientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)