An accurate, reliable, specific and sensitive kinetic spectrofluorimetric method was developed for the determination of seven cephalosporin antibiotics namely cefotaxime sodium, cephapirin sodium, cephradine dihydrate, cephalexin monohydrate, cefazoline sodium, ceftriaxone sodium and cefuroxime sodium. The method is based on their degradation under an alkaline condition producing fluorescent products. The factors affecting the degradation and the determination were studied and optimized. The reaction is followed spectrofluorimetrically by measuring the rate of change of fluorescence intensity at specified emission wavelength. The initial rate and fixed time methods were used for the construction of calibration graphs to determine the concentration of the studied drugs. The calibration graphs are linear in the concentration ranges 0.2-1.2 microg mL(-1) and 0.2-2.2 microg mL(-1) using the initial rate and fixed time methods, respectively. The results were statistically validated and checked through recovery studies. The method has been successfully applied for the determination of the studied cephalosporins in commercial dosage forms. The high sensitivity of the proposed method allows the determination of investigated cephalosporins in human plasma. The statistical comparisons of the results with the reference methods show an excellent agreement and indicate no significant difference in accuracy and precision.