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How to Convert Frontiers Journal PDFs to EPUB for E-Reader Reading (2026)

Frontiers is one of the world's largest open-access publishers, producing over 200 peer-reviewed journals across science, medicine, humanities, and social science. Every article is freely available as a PDF under CC BY — no paywall, no login required.

Frontiers PDFs use the standard two-column journal layout with colour figures, which renders poorly on an e-reader's narrow screen. Converting to EPUB gives you a clean single-column reflowable document for reading on a Kindle or Kobo with adjustable font, night mode, and offline access.

Key Frontiers Journals by Field

JournalFieldArticles/yearPDF cost
Frontiers in NeuroscienceNeuroscience (all subfields)High volumeFree, CC BY
Frontiers in PsychologyPsychology (all subfields)Very high volumeFree, CC BY
Frontiers in Public HealthPublic health & epidemiologyHigh volumeFree, CC BY
Frontiers in GeneticsGenetics & genomicsHigh volumeFree, CC BY
Frontiers in Ecology and the EnvironmentEcology & conservationMedium volumeFree, CC BY
Frontiers in MedicineClinical medicine (all)High volumeFree, CC BY
Frontiers in OncologyCancer biology & oncologyHigh volumeFree, CC BY
Frontiers in ImmunologyImmunology & inflammationVery high volumeFree, CC BY
Frontiers in EducationEducational researchMedium volumeFree, CC BY
Frontiers in Artificial IntelligenceAI & machine learningMedium volumeFree, CC BY

How to Download a Frontiers Article PDF

  1. Go to frontiersin.org and search for your article by title, author, or keyword — or find it via PubMed, Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, or OpenAlex and follow the Frontiers link.
  2. Open the article page. Click the Download PDF button (visible in the article toolbar at the top of the page).
  3. Frontiers DOIs begin with 10.3389 — paste the full DOI at https://doi.org/10.3389/XXXXX to navigate directly to the article.
  4. For supplementary data, look for a Supplementary Material section at the end of the article — supplementary PDFs can be downloaded separately.
  5. Save the PDF to your computer.

How to Convert a Frontiers PDF to EPUB

  1. Open toolkit.bot in your browser.
  2. Upload the Frontiers article PDF.
  3. Wait for conversion — most articles complete in under 30 seconds.
  4. Download the EPUB.
  5. Send to Kindle via Send-to-Kindle email, copy to Kobo via USB or Kobo desktop app, or open in Apple Books, Readwise Reader, or any EPUB reader app.

Frontiers vs Other Major Open-Access Publishers

PublisherJournalsKey strengthDOI prefix
Frontiers200+Breadth across sciences10.3389
PLOS10High-impact selective10.1371
BioMed Central300+Biomedicine depth10.1186
eLife1Prestige biology/medicine10.7554
PeerJ~30Biology & computer science10.7717
Hindawi200+Broad sciences10.1155

Frequently Asked Questions

Are all Frontiers journal articles free to download as PDF?

Yes. Frontiers is a fully open-access publisher — every article in every Frontiers journal is published under Creative Commons CC BY licence, which means the PDF is freely downloadable by anyone without paywall or institutional login. Go to the article page on frontiersin.org and click the PDF button in the article viewer.

How many journals does Frontiers publish?

Frontiers publishes over 200 open-access peer-reviewed journals spanning neuroscience, psychology, medicine, public health, ecology, physics, chemistry, computer science, education, economics, and more. The most widely read are Frontiers in Neuroscience, Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers in Public Health, Frontiers in Genetics, and Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

Why is a Frontiers PDF hard to read on a Kindle or Kobo?

Frontiers PDFs use a two-column journal layout with embedded figures, colour diagrams, and structured abstract boxes. E-readers reflow the PDF at a narrow viewport width, which breaks column order and makes figure captions misaligned. Converting to EPUB produces a single-column reflowable document that renders cleanly at any font size.

Can I also read Frontiers articles in their HTML format instead of converting?

Yes, Frontiers publishes an HTML article view for desktop browsers. However, the HTML format is not available for offline reading on an e-reader — it requires an internet connection and a browser. Converting the PDF to EPUB gives you an offline, e-reader-optimised version with adjustable font, night mode, and device-level annotations.

Is Frontiers a legitimate peer-reviewed publisher?

Yes, Frontiers is a legitimate peer-reviewed open-access publisher founded in 2007 and headquartered in Switzerland. It is indexed in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. However, it has received some criticism for its tiered peer review model. As with any publisher, evaluate individual articles on their evidence and methodology rather than the publisher alone.

Related: PLOS to EPUB · BioMed Central to EPUB · eLife to EPUB · PDF to EPUB for researchers