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Topic · Small Animals

Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies

Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies is a research topic within Small Animals. Science Explorer counts 37k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the assessment of animal welfare across various species, including stress indicators, emotional state, environmental enrichment, cognitive bias, hormone measurement, farm animal welfare, captive animals, lameness in animals, and behavioural assessment.

  • Animal Welfare
  • Stress Indicators
  • Emotional State
  • Environmental Enrichment
  • Cognitive Bias
  • Hormone Measurement
  • Farm Animal Welfare
  • Captive Animals
  • Lameness in Animals
  • Behavioural Assessment
Research works
37k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3.7k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+12%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
32% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies

This ranks research output and citation impact. It says nothing about the quality of diagnosis, treatment or care.

Which countries lead Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (1.5k and 644 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.5k works
  2. 2 China 644 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 500 works
  4. 4 Brazil 370 works
  5. 5 Germany 323 works
  6. 6 France 320 works
  7. 7 Canada 297 works
  8. 8 Australia 273 works
  9. 9 Italy 266 works
  10. 10 India 251 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 32.0%China: 13.5%United Kingdom: 10.5%Brazil: 7.8%6 others listed: 36.3%32%largest
United States1,524 · 32.0%China644 · 13.5%United Kingdom500 · 10.5%Brazil370 · 7.8%6 others listed1,731 · 36.3%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies research?

By volume in 2022-now, Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement publishes the most Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies research, followed by Aarhus University and Wageningen University & Research.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'EnvironnementFrance 114 works
  2. 2 Aarhus UniversityDenmark 66 works
  3. 3 Wageningen University & ResearchNetherlands 66 works
  4. 4 University of GuelphCanada 58 works
  5. 5 Swedish University of Agricultural SciencesSweden 56 works
  6. 6 Kansas State UniversityUnited States 55 works
  7. 7 United States Department of AgricultureUnited States 50 works
  8. 8 Indian Council of Agricultural ResearchIndia 47 works
  9. 9 Chinese Academy of Agricultural SciencesChina 46 works
  10. 10 Animal Welfare InstituteUnited States 46 works

Who are the leading researchers in Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies include Rob Knight, George Davey Smith and Albert Bandura.

  1. 1 Rob Knight United States 468k citations
  2. 2 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  3. 3 Albert Bandura United States 370k citations
  4. 4 Jun Wang China 340k citations
  5. 5 Martin McKee United Kingdom 270k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies?

The most cited paper in Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies is "BORIS : a free, versatile open‐source event‐logging software for video/audio coding and live observations" (Olivier Friard, Marco Gamba, 2016), with 3,591 citations. Next come "A Body Condition Scoring Chart for Holstein Dairy Cows" (2,961) and "Coping styles in animals: current status in behavior and stress-physiology" (2,921).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 BORIS : a free, versatile open‐source event‐logging software for video/audio coding and live observations Olivier Friard, Marco Gamba · Methods in Ecology and Evolution Open access 4 May 2016 3,591
2 A Body Condition Scoring Chart for Holstein Dairy Cows A.J. Edmonson, I.J. Lean, Leon D. Weaver et al. · Journal of Dairy Science Open access 1989 2,961
3 Coping styles in animals: current status in behavior and stress-physiology Jaap M. Koolhaas, S. Mechiel Korte, Sietse F. de Boer et al. · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews Open access Nov 1999 2,921
4 Biological basis of the behavior of sick animals Benjamin L. Hart · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews Jun 1988 2,258
5 The repeatability of behaviour: a meta-analysis Alison M. Bell, Shala Hankison, Kate L. Laskowski · Animal Behaviour ReviewOpen access 13 Feb 2009 2,175
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies research done?

The largest centres of Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Paris (France), São Paulo (Brazil) and Washington D.C. (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Saint-Gilles and Carlow.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 142 works
  2. 2 ParisFrance 111 works
  3. 3 São PauloBrazil 88 works
  4. 4 Washington D.C.United States 84 works
  5. 5 AarhusDenmark 83 works
  6. 6 WageningenNetherlands 68 works
  7. 7 ViennaAustria 64 works
  8. 8 UppsalaSweden 61 works
  9. 9 GuelphCanada 60 works
  10. 10 LondonUnited Kingdom 60 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Saint-GillesFR · 22.9 works337×
  2. CarlowIE · 23.2 works49×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies than the world average.

See Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies on the map

Where is the best place to study Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies?

Among universities, judged by research, Wageningen University & Research, South China Agricultural University and Northwest A&F University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 22.66%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Northwest A&F Univer…South China Agricult…Wageningen Universit…Aarhus University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Wageningen University & ResearchNetherlands 74.817.9%28.4×66 +13.3%
2South China Agricultural UniversityChina 73.633.9%12.7×28 +98.7%
3Northwest A&F UniversityChina 70.142.2%6.3×16 +124.1%
4Aarhus UniversityDenmark 66.513.2%11.9×66 +17.0%
5Swedish University of Agricultural SciencesSweden 62.68.7%56.6×56 +1.6%
6University of GeorgiaUnited States 61.028.7%10.9×30 +102.4%
7Inner Mongolia Agricultural UniversityChina 60.637.3%12.4×11 +326.7%
8University of Veterinary Medicine ViennaAustria 59.69.2%120.5×41 +4.7%
9University of BolognaItaly 58.418.2%5.9×32 +40.9%
10Ghent UniversityBelgium 57.817.3%5.7×28 +15.7%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies, country by country

Is Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 12% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.027% in 2024.

still counting0.025%0.050%0.075%Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies0.030% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies10.0% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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