Specialty Chief Editor Guidelines

Table of contents

Table of contents
Table of contents ......................................................................................................................... 2
1. Frontiers Overview .................................................................................................................. 3
2. About this Package ................................................................................................................. 4
3. Registration & Profile .............................................................................................................. 5
4. How to Launch your Section .................................................................................................. 6
4.1. How to Build the Editorial Board .................................................................................... 6
4.2. How to Get the Section Off Ground ............................................................................... 7
4.3. Numerical Goal Summary ............................................................................................... 7
4.4. General Timeline .............................................................................................................. 8
5. Month 1 ..................................................................................................................................... 9
5.1. Goals for this Month ........................................................................................................ 9
5.2. Checklist ........................................................................................................................... 9
5.2.1. Mission Statement ...................................................................................................... 9
5.2.2. Identify Associate Editors ......................................................................................... 10
6. Month 2 ................................................................................................................................... 12
6.1. Goals for this Month ...................................................................................................... 12
6.2. Checklist ......................................................................................................................... 12
6.3. Follow up with Associate Editors................................................................................. 12
6.4. Submit Your Grand Challenge ...................................................................................... 12
6.5. Launch online ................................................................................................................. 12
7. Month 3 ................................................................................................................................... 13
7.1. Goals for this Month ...................................................................................................... 13
7.2. Checklist ......................................................................................................................... 13
7.3. Submit Your Inaugural Article ...................................................................................... 13
7.4. Review Editorial Boards ................................................................................................ 13
8. Month 4 ................................................................................................................................... 15
8.1. Goals for this Month ...................................................................................................... 15
8.2. Checklist ......................................................................................................................... 15
8.3. Oversee Associate Editorial Follow Up ....................................................................... 15
8.4.1. Inaugural Article Reminders ..................................................................................... 15
8.4. Special Topic Organization ........................................................................................... 16
9. Appendices ............................................................................................................................ 17
9.1. Missions for Editors ...................................................................................................... 17
9.1.1. Mission of Specialty Chief Editors ............................................................................ 17
9.1.2. Mission for Associate Editors ................................................................................... 18
9.1.3. Mission for Review Editors ....................................................................................... 18
9.2. Article Processing Charges .......................................................................................... 19
9.3. Frontiers Contact Information ...................................................................................... 20
9.4. Important Links on the Frontiers Website ................................................................... 22
9.4.1. Your Journals Homepage ......................................................................................... 22
9.4.2. About Frontiers ......................................................................................................... 22
9.4.3. Journal Mission Statements ..................................................................................... 22
9.4.4. Review Guidelines .................................................................................................... 22
9.4.5. Author Instructions .................................................................................................... 22
9.4.6. Frontiers Brochure .................................................................................................... 22

www.frontiersin.org

Frontiers Overview

1. Frontiers Overview
Welcome to Frontiers!
th

Did you know that Frontiers is the 4 Generation Publishing System?

st

1 Generation: the common Reader-Pay or Restricted Access Model

nd
2 Generation: the improved Author-Pay or Open Access Model
rd
3 Generation: the collaborative Open Repository or Universal Access Model
th
4 Generation: the revolutionary Frontiers Model or Equal Opportunity Model

Frontiers is a publishing concept by researchers for researchers, it is a community journal

concept, which offers a comprehensive solution to the numerous problems in scholarly
publishing. The main aim of Frontiers is to switch publishing from author serving publisher to
publisher serving author. Frontiers therefore introduces a spectrum of novel solutions that
th
makes it a 4 generation scholarly publishing model, beyond the restricted-access (reader-pay),
open-access (author-pay) and even universal-access (unrestricted internet posting) models,
towards an equal-opportunity model. The concept is based on equal-opportunity certification,
evaluation, and publishing of research articles, as well as free dissemination of scholarly
research knowledge. Frontiers is the first publisher that truly harnesses the full potential of state
of the art Information and Internet technologies to bring to researchers the most powerful
publishing environment possible.
Frontiers is:

The first tiered journal system setup to automatically and democratically distil scientific
excellence and social relevance,
The first real-time on-line journal for interactive review to increase the speed, efficiency
and quality of the peer-review process,
The first community journal with participative architecture for authors and readers to
present their work, ideas, opinions and activities,
The first author services journal where authors can track, enhance, collaborate,
promote, and build support for their research.

Thank you for joining! It is an honor to have you on board and we hope you will take the time to
get to know Frontiers.
The time you take now to understand your role at Frontiers will save you an enormous amount
of time later on and guarantee the success of your journal!

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About this Package

2. About this Package

This package shows you how to build a highly successful journal.
It provides:
How to Information:
How to register
How to write your mission statement
How to select specialties
How to build your Editorial Board
How to launch your journal
What for Information:
The automated messaging system
The importance of profiles
The review process
What is Information:
Important links and information on the Frontiers website
The mission and awards for you
What Article Processing Charges are used for
How to Begin Launching your Journal?
Register with Frontiers
Write your Mission Statement
Read the Missions for yourself, the Specialty Chief, Associate and Review Editors
Make a list of potential Associate Editors (AE)
Support your Associate Editors to build their Review Editorial Boards
Submit your Grand Challenge article
Submit your Inaugural Article
Announce the launch of your journal
Provide a list of 10 manuscripts that you will actively solicit for publication
Read the Frontiers Editorial Mission and Benefit Statements
The time you take now is the time you will save later! Please read the Frontiers Mission
statements for Chief, Associate and Review Editors carefully to familiarize yourself with the
obligations of the Editorial positions as well as how Frontiers remunerates you for your work.
Frontiers does not expect anyone to work for free and Editors do have obligations they must
meet to be and remain on an Editorial Board.
You can find your Specialty Chief Editor Mission in this document and also online in your
My Frontiers account.
Where do I find the Frontiers Editorial Missions?
1. Log into your My Frontiers account.
2. On the left hand side menu bar, please select: Chief Editor => Missions
On the Missions screen you will be able to find all relevant statements for yourself, Associate
and Review Editors as well as Authors.

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Registration & Profile

3. Registration & Profile

Your first action should be to register with Frontiers. Registering is also a good way to get to
know the Frontiers website. Only after registering the Editorial Office will be able to grant your
Specialty Chief Editor account rights.
How do I register?
1. Go to www.frontiersin.org and click on Register
2. Log into your account and click on My Frontiers
3. On the left hand side menu, please select: My Profile => Edit My Profile
On your personal profile screen you will be able to complete and continuously update your
profile.

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How to launch your Section

4. How to Launch your Section

Frontiers developed a straightforward sequence to launch your section successfully within 4
months. If you follow this launch sequence, you will be able to boast an impressive and
outstanding Editorial Board of approximately 20 Associate Editors and 200 Review Editors by
the end of the fourth month. Also, your journal will have published over 20 inaugural articles
submitted by you and your Associate Editors and will be in a powerful position to attract outside
submissions.
Please read carefully through the month-by-month activities and goals. Each month has very
specific targets to be achieved and a checklist for your convenience to tick-off your
achievements.

4.1. How to Build the Editorial Board

The Editorial Boards are build as follows: the Field Chief Editor invites and appoints the ~20
Specialty Chief Editors (you), who in turn each invite and appoint 10-15 Associate Editors. The
Review Editors (the referees of the articles) are invited and appointed by the Associate Editors
(10-15 Review Editors per Associate Editor). Each Editor is in charge of overseeing the duties
of the editors appointed by them. Of course, as the Specialty Chief Editor you can intervene in
any editorial appointment.
A journals editorial board will be complete with approximately 2000-3000 editors (note that
unlike in other journals, the referees of Frontiers articles are included into the editorial boards
and alike to any other editor listed with their name and affiliation).

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How to Launch your Section

4.2. How to Get the Section Off Ground

An outstanding editorial board is one pillar to the success of your section. The other pillar is the
publication of an Inaugural Article by each Associate Editor, including yourself. This article is
free of charge and will set the quality standard for each specialty section. Also, we found that it
is extremely difficult to convince authors to publish in a new journal when the Chief and
Associate Editors do not do it themselves! Thus, this article, together with the Grand Challenge
is really the secret to get your section off ground and convince your community about its
seriousness and dedication.

4.3. Numerical Goal Summary

Month 1

Month 2

Month 3

Month 4

Month 5

Month 12

Month 24

AEs

10

20

20

20

20

20

REs

50

100

200

200

200

SCE: 1
AE: 10

AE:20

10-15 by
month

Sustain.:
120
articles/yea
r
Successful:
180 articles
/year

Editorial Boards

Articles
Grand
Challenges
Inaugural
Articles
Submitted

Articles
Published

10

SCE = Specialty Chief Editor, AE = Associate Editor, RE = Review Editor

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How to launch your Section

4.4. General Timeline

The graph below summarizes the four-month launch plan for the field journal with major
achievements for each month.

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Month 1

5. Month 1
5.1. Goals for this Month
The goals for this month are twofold:
1. to get acquainted with Frontiers, the concepts, the launch process and the article review
system.
2. to start the launch process by segmenting your specialty, writing your mission
statement, inviting the Associate Editors and submitting your Grand Challenge article.

5.2. Checklist

read, sign and send the appointment letter

read the Specialty Chief Editor Guidelines
read the Article Processing Charge section of the Guidelines carefully
read the mission for Specialty Chief Editors
read the mission for Associate Editors
read the mission for Review Editors
read the Review Guidelines
identify potential Associate Editors
invite ~20 Associate Editors
write your Mission Statement

5.2.1. Mission Statement

Your mission statement should describe the full scope and vision of your section. It is
important to cover your specialty comprehensively and then indicate your vision for this
specialty. You should also generate and provide with your mission statement, a full list of areas
covered in your field. This helps guide your selection of Associate Editors as they should each
represent the different areas.
The mission statement consists of 2 parts: the first part describes your scope and vision for the
specialty, the second part is a standard operational text about Frontiers Journals.
Your part should be no longer than 250 words (excluding the section list).
The standard Frontiers template for the specialty mission statement is as follows:
<<Specialty Section Name>> is a specialty section of <<Field Journal Name >>.
<< Specialty Chief Editor vision is inserted here >>
<<Specialty Section Name>> welcomes the following tier 1 article types: <<tier 1 article types for this
specialty only, separated by commas last one is preceded by an and, the article types are hyperlinks>>.
All articles must be submitted directly to <<Specialty Section Name>> where they are processed by the
Associate and Review Editors of the specialty section.
All articles published in <<Specialty Section Name>> will be subjected to the Frontiers
Evaluation System after online publication. Authors of the original research articles with the highest impact,
as judged by many expert readers, will be invited by the Field Chief Editor of <<Specialty Section Name>>

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How to launch your Section

to write a prestigious Frontiers focused review a tier 2 article. This is referred to as "democratic tiering".
The selection is based on the reader impact over a 4-month period from the date of publication. The
selected high impact articles are re-written in a review style centered on the original discovery and aim to
address the wider audience across all of <<Field Name>>.
Example************************
Frontiers in Molecular Psychiatry is a specialty section of Frontiers in Psychiatry.
It aims to publish significant clinical and basic research findings on all of psychiatric related aspects by
using both conventional and high-throughput molecular approaches. Specifically, we welcome papers on
the following topics: 1) identification of genes and genetic variants related to psychiatric disorders; 2)
characterization of genes and biological pathways implicated in psychiatric disorders at the molecular
level; 3) neuroimaging investigation to assess the nature, etiology, and pathophysiology of psychiatric
disorders; and 4) determination of basic functional mechanisms by which psychopharmacological agents
exert their effects. While Frontiers in Molecular Psychiatry is primarily centered on human studies, in vitro
and animal studies that are closely related to psychiatric research on humans are also welcome. Our
ultimate goal is to accelerate the communications in the field and to stimulate molecular research on all of
Psychiatry.
Frontiers in Molecular Psychiatry welcomes the following tier 1 article types: original research articles,
review articles, hypothesis and theory articles, method articles, commentaries, perspective articles, book
reviews and conference proceedings.
All articles must be submitted directly to Frontiers in Molecular Psychiatry where they are processed by the
Associate and Review Editors of the specialty section.
All articles published in Frontiers in Molecular Psychiatry will be subjected to the Frontiers Evaluation
System after online publication. Authors of the original research articles with the highest impact, as judged
by many expert readers, will be invited by the Field Chief Editor Frontiers in Psychiatry to write a
prestigious Frontiers focused review a tier 2 article. This is referred to as "democratic tiering". The
selection is based on the reader impact over a 4-month period from the date of publication. The selected
high impact articles are re-written in a review style centered on the original discovery and aim to address
the wider audience across all of Psychiatry.

For more examples please view:www.frontiersin.org

Please note that the mission statement and areas list may be modified and refined later on in
order to ensure the unique focus of journal within the Frontiers series.
Please submit your journal mission statement to Frontiers:
[email protected]

5.2.2. Identify Associate Editors

What does an Associate Editor do?
An Associate Editor task is greatly simplified in Frontiers. The Associate Editor is associated
with the specialty and manages and oversees the review of articles. The Associate Editor also
accepts articles for publication, but can only recommend to reject an article to the Specialty
Chief Editor i.e. only the Specialty Chief Editor has the authority to reject an article after
reviewing the recommendation and the problems in the article. This is the only time the you are
required to examine articles himself.

How do I select an Associate Editor?

The goal is to ensure that all areas of a specialty are represented evenly by experts. Try not to
invite clusters of Associate Editors that are very similar in expertise and research areas. This

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Month 1

may require some work and also may involve inviting researchers that you do not know well.
Also, consider inviting Associate Editors from different countries and continents. From
experience we know that the best and most stimulating Associate Editorial Boards are a
combination between established big shot scientists and younger upcoming and promising
new scientists, with all the ambition to still make a name for themselves.
How many Associate Editors should be invited?
Frontiers is striving for a highly automated peer-review process as this is part of lowering
overheads and costs to authors and part of the unbiased approaches in Frontiers. Authors
currently have the choice to select an Associate Editor to handle their article, but in the future all
Associate Editors will be notified of a submission and any one may choose voluntarily to handle
the article. This is one reason why it is important to build a significant Editorial Board with up to
15-20 Associate Editors by specialty. The other reason is to comprehensively cover the
specialty. It is also an important part of building the Review Editorial Board since each
Associate Editor will be asked to build a database of referees by inviting a number of Review
Editors. Finally, a successful journal will need a large
Associate board in case the submission rate is high and you do not want to ask the Review
Editors to handle more than one paper per month.
How do I invite an Associate Editor?
1. Log into your Frontiers account.
2. On the left hand side menu bar, please select: Chief Editor => Associate Editor
Management
3. On the Associate Editor screen click on Add Associate Editor.
4. Now you can type in the name, affiliation and email of a scientist you wish to invite.
5. An automatic email will be loaded in the message box. You may edit the message and
give it a personal touch (but please do not delete any text preceded by a $ sign. This
text will load links and attachments automatically when you send the message).
6. Click on Invite Associate Editor and your invitee will receive a detailed invitation
letter with information about the Frontiers concept, a Frontiers brochure and information
on obligations as well as benefits. In this email the invitee will receive links to accept or
decline the invitation.
7. In the Associate Editor Management screen, you will be able to view your invitations
and see the status of each invitation (still pending or accepted) so you can easily follow
up on your invitations.
The entire procedure takes no longer than a minute! From the past experience, the acceptance
rate is very high (> 90%). In no time you can boast an impressive Editorial Board!
Once a person accepted an invitation to join the Associate Editorial board, he/she will
immediately show up on your journals home page and across the website in the Editorial Board
section.

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Month 2

6. Month 2
6.1. Goals for this Month
The goals for this month are:
1. Fill up the Associate Editor Board to ~20 appointed Associate Editors.
2. Submit your Grand Challenge Article.
3. Launch section online.

6.2. Checklist

~20 Associate Editors appointed

Launch online
Write your Grand Challenge

6.3. Follow up with Associate Editors

Once your Associate Editors join the Board, it is important to follow up with them and make sure
that they read the Associate Editor Guidelines and are aligned with the Frontiers philosophy.
Then, there are practical actions to be taken: The main task of the Associate Editors will be to
build their Review Editorial Board. Also it is important to make the Associate Editors aware that
they are strongly encouraged to submit an Inaugural Article to jump-start their sections and set
a quality example for future authors to follow. Of course, this article is free of charge if submitted
during a 3-4 month window.

6.4. Submit Your Grand Challenge

The Grand Challenge is a perspective article that describes your vision for the specialty. What
are exiting frontiers to break, into which direction is the field moving and which challenges have
to be mastered on the way? It sets the tone for your new journal and gives it character. This is a
short article of not more than 1-2 pages and can be directly submitted to Frontiers Editorial
Office.

6.5. Launch online

This month we can already launch your section online where it will become visible to your
community. The minimal requirements for launch are:
1. Mission statement
2. 10 Associate Editors on board who have commited to submit their inaugural article (with
tentative title and submission date).
3. Grand Challenge article written

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Month 3

7. Month 3
7.1. Goals for this Month
The goals for this month are as follows:
1. Associate Editors should start inviting their Review Editors
2. Submit your Inaugural Article

7.2. Checklist

My Inaugural Article is submitted

Associate Editors invite Review Editors

7.3. Submit Your Inaugural Article

The Inaugural Article is an integral part of the journal launch, as it sets an example for the
readers, and future authors, of your journal. Your Inaugural Article may be an Original Research
Article, Review Article, a Perspective Article or Hypothesis and Theory Article, of any length.
You can find all manuscript guidelines at www.frontiersin.org/guidelines. There is no article
processing charge for Inaugural Articles.

7.4. Review Editorial Boards

Building a Review Editorial Board
A sizeable database of referees is crucial for the general performance of your journal. It makes
it easy to assign the appropriate referees upon new submissions and it helps you build a
community around your journal. It will also be important for the new automated referee selection
in the next generations of Frontiers.
What does a Review Editor do?
In Frontiers, Review Editors are the referees of papers in the peer-review process. They are the
pillars of the Frontiers Review, they are responsible for certifying the validity of the publication,
and are also acknowledged publicly on the article. The entire review can be performed online
(also offline, but the last steps are online only). In fact the review can even be performed in realtime in the Frontiers Review Forum. The concept is new to researchers, so you may need to
help your Associate Editors and Review Editors to understand and work in the Review Forum.
This is the next generation process and is very important in standardizing and raising the quality
of the reviews.
Who should invite Review Editors?
It is most important that the Associate Editors invite Review Editors since they are the ones that
must assign Review Editors for newly submitted articles. But Chief Editors can, of course, also
invite Review Editors.
How many Review Editors should be invited?
A large database of referees is the key to a successful journal. The journal automatically
becomes capable of handling many more papers, much quicker and more efficiently. This

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Month 3

approach also exposes your journal to the top experts which means that they too will submit
articles. So, an important task for you is to encourage and ensure that each of your Associate
Editors invites at least 10-20 Review Editors. A successful Specialty Section needs a healthy
database of around 200 referees, so that should be your target for each of your Specialties
Review Editorial Boards.
How do I invite a Review Editor?
The procedure is basically the same as for Associate Editors.
1. Log into your Frontiers account.
2. On the left hand side menu, please select: Chief Editor => Review Editor
Management
3. On the Associate Editor screen click on Add Review Editor.
4. Now you can type in the name, affiliation and email of a scientist you wish to invite. An
automatic email will load in the message box. You may edit it and give it a personal
touch (but please do not delete any text preceded by a $ sign. This text and
attachments will load automatically when you send the message).
5. Click on Invite Review Editor and your invitee will receive a detailed invitation letter
with information about the Frontiers concept, a Frontiers brochure and information on
obligations as well as benefits. In this email the invitee will receive links to accept or
decline the invitation.
6. On the Associate Editor Management screen you will be able to view your invitations
and see the status of each invitation (still pending or accepted).
Once a person accepted an invitation to join a review editorial board, he/she will immediately
show up on your journals home page and across the website in the Editorial Board section.

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Month 4

8. Month 4
8.1. Goals for this Month
The goals for this month are:
1. Remind the Associate Editors to submit their Inaugural Articles
2. ~20 Associate Editors on board
3. 150 Review Editors on board
4. Start organizing Special Topic

8.2. Checklist

Associate Editors reminded to submit their Inaugural article

~200 Associate Editors on board
> 100 Review Editors on board
Start organizing Special Topic

8.3. Oversee Associate Editorial Follow Up

Some Associate Editors may be delayed in building their Review Editorial Board or submitting
their Inaugural Article. Frontiers Editorial Office will be overseeing this process and sending
reminders. However, it will be important for you to keep an eye on this process and stay in
touch with your Associate Editors to make sure that all is going well.

8.4.1. Inaugural Article Reminders

Associate Editors should submit an Inaugural Article. It is their initial enthusiasm and
commitment that will guarantee the success of the journal. By experience we know that the
most successful Specialties are those in which all Associate Editors submitted an Inaugural
Article within a reasonable time. Please find below an Inaugural Article template reminder for
your Associate Editors:
Dear xxx,
You joined Frontiers in Specialty Name as an Associate Editor. I noticed that you have not yet submitted
your inaugural article and would like to remind you that the submission deadline is 3 months after joining.
During this period all processing and publication costs of your article are waived!
The Inaugural Article is an integral part of the journal launch, as it sets an example for the readers, and
future authors, of your journal. Your enthusiasm and initial effort as Associate Editor is key to the success
of your journal.
Your Inaugural Article may be an Original Research Article, Review Article, a Perspective Article or
Hypothesis and Theory Article, of any length. You can find all manuscript guidelines at
www.frontiersin.org/guidelines.
With best regards,

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Month 4

8.4. Special Topic Organization

Each Frontiers journal and specialty section can publish "Special Topics". Special Topics are
centered around grand challenges, new developments and hot topics in a particular field. They
are published as a collection (on their own webpage) of at least ten articles, which can be of any
article type.
This is a powerful strategy that works, but needs to be nurtured. You have to ensure that each
Associate Editor will encourage the organization of Special Topics. You will have to agree to
any proposed Special Topic and the host editor has to accept the requirements, be fully
committed and work with a planned agenda to make sure that the Special Topic will be
launched on time.
What a host editor should do:
1. Write down the overall structure of the Special Topic with tentative titles.
2. Get abstract proposals from invited authors.
3. Select a minimum of 10 articles to be included.
4. Set a series of deadlines for submission and reminders.
5. Follow up very carefully to make sure everybody is on track.
Please find a template email to send to the Associate Editors:
Host a Special Topic!
I am inviting each of Frontiers editors to suggest and host a Special Topic in a particular
month during this year. Since the initial launch of Special Topics, Frontiers has received an
enormous amount of positive feedback. More than 60 special topics have been organized since
2009.
Special topics are a great way to promote research interests and the specialty journals you work
with. Our goal is to create a number of exciting topics for each Frontiers Specialty in the
upcoming months, but we need you to help us achieve this goal!

Here is what you need to do if you would like to host a special topic:
Choose a topic
Write a short description (max 200 words)
Provide a list of potential contributors
The topic will be approved by the Specialty Chief Editor and you will be in charge of supervising
the review process.
The Editorial Office will:
Help you to organize deadlines, invitations and monitor the review process.
Send a "call for submission" to the community and scientists working in this field.
Announce your special topic in our Frontiers newsletter and Frontiers journal for maximum
exposure!
Contact the editorial office at [email protected] for more detailed information
You can find all details and examples of past special topics on:
http://www.frontiersin.org/specialtopicspage.

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Appendices

9. Appendices
9.1. Missions for Editors
9.1.1. Mission of Specialty Chief Editors
Frontiers' philosophy is to provide an Internet platform for journals that publish outstanding
research and to build up a community in each field. It is a true opportunity for the Specialty
Chief Editor (SCE), as a world-class leader in this field, to directly participate in building this
ideal platform for publishing, interacting and sharing of knowledge, and to meet the myriad of
needs of editors and authors.
While the Frontiers Research Foundation is completely committed to supporting each journal
fully, any journal can only be supported for a limited time from philanthropic sources. Hence, it is
also necessary for the SCEs to use the tools of the novel Frontiers platform to build a highly
successful journal.
Specialty Chief Editors are, therefore, encouraged to adopt an entrepreneurial approach to their
journal. Self-sustainability is achieved by meeting the target number of publications for each
specialty section. Success is achieved through reaching a higher target number of articles and,
in the future, also through advertising, donations, and by recruiting industry to support the field
of research. A minimum goal is to meet the submission target for a self-sustainable journal, but
Frontiers offers additional ways to boost a specialtys performance, impact and prestige.
A sustainable specialty section is one that publishes more than 120 articles per year (average of
10 per month) and a successful specialty is one that publishes more than 180 articles per year
(average 15 per month).
The most important secret to a successful specialty section is to ensure that you build a strong
associate editorial board and to make sure that each Associate Editor publishes an inaugural
article within 3 months after accepting their appointment.
The important steps to a successful section
1. write a mission statement for your section;
2. subdivide your specialty conceptually into all the possible sub-specialties to
comprehensively cover each niche of the specialty;
3. appoint the highest ranking researchers as Associate Editors to cover all these niches;
4. ensure that the Associate Editors understand and carry out their mission;
5. write a grand challenge article to outline in more detail the big issues to be solved in
your field in the 21st century (lead the way);
6. submit one of your articles to your journal (sets an example) within 3 months after
acceptance of your appointment. This is your inaugural article and free of charge;
7. maintain a high quality service to the community;
8. make sure that the Associate Editors submit an inaugural article within 3 months after
they accept their appointment this is a crucial step as you cannot convince others to
publish in your section if you and your Associate Editors are not publishing in it;
9. encourage top researchers to publish in your journal (raises impact);
10. familiarize yourself with the Frontiers website and the Frontiers Rules and Regulations.

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Appendices

9.1.2. Mission for Associate Editors

Frontiers philosophy is to provide an Internet platform for journals that publish outstanding
research and to build up a community in each field. It is a true opportunity for researchers to
directly participate in building this ideal platform for publishing, interacting and sharing of
knowledge, and to meet the myriad of needs of editors and authors.
The most important mission for you to help build a highly successful journal is to build a strong
review editorial board.
The important steps to a successful section are to
1. build a review editorial board of 20 or more top-class experts within 1 month after your
appointment that is qualified to review papers you expect to be editing;
2. submit an inaugural article to your specialty within 3 months after your appointment. It is
essential to set an example for the community and showcase the kind of work published
by your specialty section. The article may be an original research article, review article,
perspective article, or hypothesis and theory article of any length. There is no article
processing charge for inaugural articles. This is an extremely important obligation to
fulfill as soon as possible because it creates the momentum and will guarantee the
success of your section;
3. guide the peer-review of articles that you agree to edit and ensure that the review is
carried out according to the Frontiers Peer-Review Guidelines;
4. coach and assist your review editorial board to carry out their role in refereeing articles
focusing on objective criteria of validity, accuracy, flawlessness, and quality and not on
subjective criteria, such as significance, novelty, interest, impact, dogmas, paradigms,
etc.;
5. make the final decision whether or not a paper is acceptable for publication by ensuring
all quality, validity and ethical standards have been met and that all Review Editors
agree to the publication;
6. recommend rejection of a paper if Review Editors unanimously agree that an article is
not acceptable for publication.

9.1.3. Mission for Review Editors

Frontiers philosophy is to provide an Internet platform for journals that publish outstanding
research and to build up a community in each field. It is a true opportunity for researchers to
directly participate in building this ideal platform for publishing, interacting and sharing of
knowledge, and to meet the myriad of needs of editors and authors.
The highest possible quality and objective review of articles is the foundation of this publishing
system. Frontiers prides itself in its objective high quality review system and the role of Review
Editors is, therefore, central in Frontiers.
The primary mission of Review Editors in Frontiers is to ensure validity and accuracy first and
foremost, to help authors improve the quality of their research and to perform reviews in a timely
manner.
It is important to note that the referee mandate is different in Frontiers. Review editors are not
able to reject an article unless this rejection is based on solid objective grounds. In the real-time
online review system you may discuss and argue with the authors and even the other Review
Editor(s) and Associate Editor until an unanimous agreement is reached to either accept or
reject the article. Articles can only be accepted or rejected when all referees agree since there
is no democracy in the expert review.
It is also important to note that Review Editors are required to take responsibility for the review
of a paper by being disclosed and acknowledged on the published article if it is accepted.

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Your main tasks are to

1. understand the Frontiers Review Principles and its Rules and Regulations which aim to
introduce objectivity to the review process. This will increase the review efficiency,
thereby reducing the review time;
2. familiarize yourself with the real-time review system to increase the efficiency of the
review process and to improve the communication between the authors and reviewers;
3. look out for cutting edge research and encourage the authors to submit their article to
Frontiers;
4. submit an article to Frontiers to set an example for the field, boost your journal and
increase its impact.

9.2. Article Processing Charges

After growing up in the subscription-based publishing model in which the readers pay to
access to the published research articles, authors and editors are sometimes surprised or even
find it unethical that authors are asked to pay article processing charges as is the case in all
open-access publishing models, including Frontiers.
Frontiers is strongly involved in educating the researchers and the public about open-access
and prepared some arguments, that you may want to use, should you be challenged with this
concern.
Publishing high quality articles is expensive and someone has to pay. Either the reader pays or
the author pays or both pay. From the perspective of Frontiers, it is unethical to charge readers
who have already given us, the researchers, money through taxes to support our research. The
world spends $2 trillion on research and there is no justification for handling this over to a
publisher to control the access to the results. On the surface it seems like a free ride for
authors, but the hidden costs and price of restricted access is not in anyone's interest.
Subscription-based publishing poses a serious problem to the libraries and countries around the
world. In fact it was a worldwide librarian rebellion in the 90's that led to the birth of Open
Access. Even Harvard University has access to only 45% of journals. The best South African
University has access to around 1%, most less than 0.1%. There are numerous studies that
now show this permanently handicaps some countries because they just do not have any
visibility of what research is done in the world. Of course, if we publish in the subscription-based
reader-pay journals, we may seem to get a free ride as authors, and our immediate circle of
fellow researchers gets access through routine subscriptions to our research, and one may not
care beyond that, but the fact is over 90% of readers do not have access to over 90% of
research published in the world. This is the price we, the authors, pay for the "free ride".
The point is that it is not sufficient to look only locally just at one's own field of research because
then the problem can be obscured. At the global level the problem is shocking and there is a ton
of material out there exposing the seriousness of this problem. As scientists, we are not made
aware of a system that we support to publish our results, but if one takes a closer look, there is
simply no moral ground for the existing subscription-based publishing system.
This is the reason why we at Frontiers, when it came to decide if our journals should be
subscription-based or open-access, did not think twice to make our content available to any
reader without any restriction. We strongly believe that access to research knowledge is a
human right and no one has the right to restrict it.
Frontiers article processing charges are well below standard open-access charges, as shown
on some main examples:
Plos (Public Library of Science, and initiative of the NIH) charges $2800 per article.

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BioMed Central's standard article-processing charge starts at $1535 and can get until $2365
depending on the journal.
Some subscription-based journals allow the authors to chose an open-access option for a
surcharge. For example, Lancet Neurology, a subscription-based journal, charges $800 per
page if you select the open access option, so a standard 12 pages article will cost the author
$9600 in the most prestigious neurology journal.
Frontiers uses the article processing charge for the following purposes:

Frontiers maintains the most advanced Internet sites in on-line publishing and strives to
continuously develop new technologies and services to serve you better.
Frontiers covers the publishing costs of tier-rising articles.
Frontiers pays professional copy editors to provide you with the highest quality article.
Frontiers pays professional graphic and publishing editors to format your article and
produce the highest quality xml, html and pdf article.
Frontiers pays expert informatics editors to publish your article in the internet as well as
to advertise and link your article to the most appropriate sites in order to maximize the
impact of your article in strategic circles.
Frontiers submits your article for indexing to CrossRef.
Frontiers pays XML editors to make your article PubMed compatible and submits your
article to PubMed for indexing.
Frontiers maintains an editorial staff and IT staff dedicated to supporting your publishing
needs.
Frontiers provides the highest possible secure servers and server technology for the
permanent electronic publication of your articles.
Frontiers promotes free dissemination of research and subsidizes publishing costs for
those researchers who cannot afford the publishing costs.

For the latest Frontiers Article Processing Charges, please visit the website:
http://www.frontiersin.org/publicationfees/
For discussions on open-access publishing, you may find these links useful:
http://frontiersin.org/global_open_access_3_2/
http://frontiersin.org/global_open_access/
http://frontiersin.org/the_impact_factor/

9.3. Frontiers Contact Information

Please find below all details about Frontiers Office people. Do not hesitate to contact them,
everybody is here to help you make your journal a success.
Editorial Office
Contact : Nathalie Tzaud
Email :
[email protected]
[email protected]
Phone: +41 21 693 92 02 (Swiss time)
General inquiries
Building of editorial board
Strategies to drive articles
Managing of the peer-review process
Editorial support
Tier-2 articles

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Production Office
Contact: Johanna Reichen
Email: [email protected]
Production of scholar articles
Referencing of articles (Pubmed)

Market Research
Contact: Costanza Zucca
Email: [email protected]
publishing market assessment
number of articles published
who are the best established publishers
which are the specialties of the field
information on researchers,
institutes and universities,
demographics of the scientific community,
competitor journals or any other market data

Conference Office
Contact : Adriana Carnelli
Email : [email protected]
calendar of events permanently posted on Frontiers website
conference abstracts published online in Frontiers journals
publication of proceedings
creation of abstract books

Foundation Office
Contact : Shamsa Abdulrasak
Email: [email protected]
Open access advocacy
Community space to foundations and societies
Fundraising
Foundation Image: promote Frontiers Research Foundation vision and mission
Market research : build up database for foundation and societies

Marketing
Contact: Costanza Zucca
Email: [email protected]
Production of marketing material for Frontiers platform, conference exhibits, meetings,
etc.
Massmailings
Segmentation, targeting, positioning of Frontiers within your field based on market
resarch

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9.4. Important Links on the Frontiers Website

9.4.1. Your Journals Homepage
www.frontiersin.org

9.4.2. About Frontiers

http://www.frontiersin.org/aboutfrontiers/

9.4.3. Journal Mission Statements

www.frontiersin.org/field/missionstatement/

9.4.4. Review Guidelines

www.frontiersin.org/reviewguidelines/

9.4.5. Author Instructions

www.frontiersin.org/guidelines

9.4.6. Frontiers Brochure

cms.frontiersin.org/foundationbrochure

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