Overview

Description, Aim and Scope

Pet Behaviour Science publishes original papers relating to all aspects of the behaviour of pets, including their relationships with humans.

This is an international and multidisciplinary open access journal. As multidisciplinary, papers are welcome from the arts and humanities, behavioural and biological sciences, cognitive science, social sciences, and the health sciences.

Topics covered include (but are not limited to):

• Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI), in all their variations, focused on the non-human animal involved
• Behavioural genetics, psychology and physiology
• Cognition, communication and cooperation
• Ethology and evolution of behaviour
• Human–animal relationship and/or their consequences in each other
• Methodology and ontogeny
• Problem solving
• Pet management and welfare
• Sensory and perceptual processes
• Social behaviour, social cognition and sociobiology

The main subjects are dogs, cats, horses and rabbits, as well as any other species of animal that is cared for as a pet or has a relationship with humans. Animals belonging to these species but not currently used as pets — such as working dogs and dogs in laboratories — could also be useful in providing results of interest to their conspecifics as pets.

Types of article

† Word counts do not include tables, figures and references.

Ethics & integrity

Studies Involving Animals

The work described in your article must have been carried out in accordance with EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments, or with the equivalent national/institutional animal welfare legislation and ethical approval framework applicable to the country where the work was conducted.

A statement should appear in the manuscript confirming that the work has been approved by the relevant ethics committee or institutional review board, including the name of the committee and the approval/protocol number, or explicitly stating that approval was not required and why. This statement should appear as the “Ethical approval statement”, in the position indicated in End-of-manuscript sections — order.

Authors should also consider and, where relevant, report the 3Rs principle (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) as applied in the design of the study.

Research should also adhere to the ASAB/ABS Guidelines for the Use of Animals in Research, published annually by the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour and the Animal Behavior Society — the reference ethical standard for the behavioural sciences, covering legislation, the 3Rs, choice of species, housing, procedures, and final disposition of animals.

Reporting standards (ARRIVE 2.0)

Manuscripts describing experiments with live animals should report the ARRIVE 2.0 Essential 10 (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments) in the Methods section, as a minimum standard of transparent reporting:

1. Study design (experimental groups, including controls)
2. Sample size and how it was determined
3. Inclusion and exclusion criteria for data/animals
4. Randomisation (how and whether animals/samples were allocated to groups)
5. Blinding (whether those conducting/analysing the experiment were unaware of group allocation)
6. Outcome measures, clearly defined and, where relevant, pre-specified as primary/secondary
7. Statistical methods used, including how they were chosen
8. Animal characteristics (species, strain, sex, age, weight, and other relevant details)
9. Experimental procedures — enough detail for replication (what, how, when, where, why)
10. Results, including summary and variability data for each experimental group

Authors are encouraged (though not required) to submit a completed ARRIVE 2.0 checklist alongside the manuscript, available at arriveguidelines.org, to help editors and reviewers quickly locate this information.

Studies Involving Humans

The work described in your article must have been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans.

Informed consent should be given by people participating in the studies reported. Any sensitive data should be handled with confidentiality and stored securely. When reporting results, participants should remain anonymous.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Pet Behaviour Science recognises that generative AI and AI-assisted tools are now part of normal academic practice, and does not prohibit their use. However, authors are fully responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of their submission, and the following rules apply without exception.

Strictly prohibited: fabrication

Permitted uses

Authors may use AI tools to support, but never to replace, their own scientific work. Acceptable uses include:

• Checking the internal coherence and logical flow of the manuscript
• Verifying the formatting and completeness of the reference list (not generating new references)
• Improving language, grammar, spelling, and readability, particularly for authors writing in a non-native language
• Correcting typography, formatting, and adherence to this guide and to the manuscript template
• General editorial support that does not alter the scientific content, data, or conclusions of the work

AI cannot be an author

AI tools and technologies cannot be listed as an author or co-author, nor cited as an author, on any submission. Authorship implies responsibility and accountability for the work, which can only be held by a human. The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all AI use complies with this policy before submission.

AI-generated or AI-modified images — not permitted for research data

Generative AI or AI-assisted tools must not be used to create or alter any figure, photograph, or image that represents research data, specimens, or experimental results. This includes both fully AI-generated images and real images altered by AI tools beyond standard adjustments (brightness, contrast, cropping, scale bars). The only exception is when an AI or AI-assisted tool is itself part of the research design or methods (e.g. certain forms of automated image analysis) — in that case its use must be described in a reproducible manner in the Methods section, including the name of the model or tool, version, and provider.

Purely explanatory diagrams or schematic illustrations that do not represent real data (e.g. a conceptual figure of an experimental setup) may be created with AI, provided they are clearly labelled as AI-generated in the caption. Undisclosed use of AI-generated or AI-altered imagery is treated as image manipulation and falls under the journal’s plagiarism and misconduct policy.

Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies

Any substantive use of AI in preparing the manuscript (permitted uses listed above) must be disclosed in a dedicated section titled “Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process”, placed at the end of the manuscript, immediately above the References. Use the following format:

“During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME OF TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON, e.g. improve language and readability]. After using this tool, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take full responsibility for the content of the publication.”

If no AI tools were used, this section may simply state so, or be omitted.

Peer Review policy

Pet Behaviour Science operates a double-anonymized peer review process (DAPR), where neither the authors’ nor the reviewers’ identities are known to each other. Reciprocal anonymity provides a more objective and potentially less biased assessment of manuscripts, and helps ensure that the process is fair to both junior and well-established scientists from all backgrounds. The implementation of DAPR aims at ensuring our reputation for integrity, fairness and openness to new ideas.

Declaration of Competing Interest

All authors are requested to inform any actual or potential competing interest including any financial, personal or other relationships with other people or organizations within three years of beginning the submitted work that could inappropriately influence, or be perceived to influence, their work. Examples of potential competing interests include employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent applications/registrations, and grants or other funding. If there is no competing interest this should be stated. This should be listed under the subheading “Declaration of Competing Interest”, in the position indicated in End-of-manuscript sections — order.

Originality and plagiarism

Authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works. If authors have used the work, data, or words of others or their own earlier publications, please ensure that this has been appropriately cited or quoted. Please also declare such overlaps in the cover letter on submission.

Plagiarism takes many forms, from ‘passing off’ another’s paper as the author’s own paper, to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another’s paper or indeed one’s own earlier paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others, or from an AI system, as one’s own. Plagiarism and fabrication in all their forms constitute unethical publishing behaviour and are unacceptable. All manuscripts are automatically put through a plagiarism check program and flagged results are evaluated individually.

Copyright

Authors will retain the copyright of their paper, although they accept to use a creative commons license, specifically CC–Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 4.0.

Preparing your manuscript

Manuscript structure

Prepare your manuscript in the official template (pbs_author_template.docx). Use 12 point Palatino Linotype font and 1.5 line spacing. Text should be aligned full left. Manuscripts should have line numbers and page numbers throughout.

The title page should contain the title of the article — keep this short and to the point. In the following pages, provide an abstract (250 to 300 words), three to five keywords (in alphabetical order below the abstract), and the text, including, as appropriate, an introduction, methods, results, discussion, acknowledgements, references, tables, and figures. Each table/figure must be cited in the text via its placement marker (see Tables and Figures below).

Additionally, authors should supply between three to five highlights which convey why the article is important, the impact of the findings in their research field and how such findings contribute to the understanding of pet behaviour and/or human-pet relationships.

Essential title page information

Content

• Title
• Author names and affiliations
• Corresponding author
• Referees

Title

• This should be brief and informative
• The title should not exceed 120 characters
• Avoid abbreviations, as well as part numbers unless the papers will be published consecutively in the same issue of the journal
• Provide a short title of no more than 10 words for the heading of the article

Author names and affiliations

• Indicate author names and affiliations clearly
• Present the authors’ affiliation addresses (where the actual work was done) below the names. Indicate all affiliations with a lower-case superscript letter immediately after the author’s name and in front of the appropriate address. Affiliations should not include street, box number, postal (zip) code, country (when that is obvious) or city, state, province, etc., when that is redundant with the University name

Corresponding author

• Clearly indicate who is willing to handle correspondence at all stages of refereeing and publication, also post-publication
• Give the full postal address, e-mail address, and telephone number (with country and area code) of the corresponding author
• E-mail addresses of co-authors may also be given

Referees

Please submit, with the manuscript, the names, affiliation and e-mail addresses of four potential referees.

Section headings — use Word’s built-in styles

To apply a heading style, click anywhere in the heading line and select the style from the Styles panel (Home tab). Subsections should be used as much as possible when cross-referencing text: refer to the subsection by heading rather than simply “the text”.

When presenting multiple experiments, authors may use Heading 1 for the title of each experiment, with Methods and Results of each experiment as Heading 2 subsections.

Article structure

The usual main headings for Research papers are: title, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, Acknowledgements and References. You can also combine some parts of your paper if you think it will help follow your experiments (e.g. you can write a combined Results and Discussion section).

Title

The same title that appears in the “Essential Title Page Information”.

Abstract

Abstracts should be concise, informative, explicit and intelligible without reference to the text. Use both common and scientific names of animals at first mention in the Abstract unless they are given in the title. Statistics and P values are allowed.

• Describe the purpose of the study
• Outline the major findings
• State the main conclusions
• Avoid using references
• Don’t exceed 300 words

Keywords

Supply three to five keywords, in alphabetical order, using semi-colon (;) between them.

Highlights

Supply between three and five highlights which convey why the article is important, the impact of the findings in their research field and how such findings contribute to the understanding of pet behaviour and/or human-pet relationships.

Introduction

• Should be brief, not normally exceeding two manuscript pages
• Keep references to a minimum by citing reviews rather than primary research papers where appropriate
• State the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background, avoiding a detailed literature survey or a summary of the results

Materials and Methods

• Details to allow the work to be reproduced should be provided
• Methods already published should be indicated by a reference: only relevant modifications should be described
• Names and addresses of companies providing trademarked products should be given
• State sample sizes, and the age, sex, breed/strain and source of animals. Numbers up to ten must be written (e.g. three) unless associated with a measurement (e.g. group 3)
• Include details of housing conditions relevant to the study (e.g. cage size and type, bedding, group size and composition, lighting, temperature, ambient noise conditions, maintenance diets), both during the study and any relevant prior period. Report time in 24-hour format (e.g. 16:00 h)
• Full details of testing or observational regimes should be given
• State the kinds of statistics used
• Any ethical implications of the experimental design and procedures should be indicated, and any licences acquired to carry out the work specified
• Describe procedures taken to minimize the welfare impact on subjects or any steps taken to enhance their welfare
• If the study involved keeping wild animals in captivity, state for how long the animals were captive and whether, where and how they were returned to the wild at the end of the study
• If any AI tool was used in the design, execution, or analysis of the study itself (as opposed to manuscript preparation), this must be disclosed here in full, per the Use of Artificial Intelligence section above

Results

Results should be clear and concise. This section should include only results that are relevant to the hypotheses outlined in the Introduction and considered in the Discussion. Other results can be given as supplementary material, labelled as “Additional Findings”.

The text should complement material given in Tables or Figures, but should not directly repeat it.

Give full details of statistical analysis either in the text or in Tables or Figure legends. Include the type of test, the precise data to which it was applied, the value of the relevant statistic, the sample size and/or degrees of freedom, and the probability level.

• Means and standard errors/standard deviations (and medians and interquartile ranges/confidence limits), with their associated sample sizes, are given in the format X ± SE = 10.20 ± 1.01 m, N = 15
• Use the International System of Units (SI)
• For significance tests, give the name of the test followed by a colon, the test statistic and its value, the degrees of freedom (as subscript) or sample size and the P value (note that F values have two degrees of freedom)
• The different parts of the statistical quotation are separated by a semi-colon (;)
• Note the use of italics for F, P, N and other variables

• P values for significant outcomes can be quoted as below a threshold significance value (e.g. P < 0.05, 0.01, 0.001), but wherever possible should be quoted as an exact probability value
• Do not quote decimals with naked points (quote 0.01, not .01), or normally to more than three decimal places — the exception being P values for significance tests, which may be quoted to four decimal places where appropriate (e.g. 0.0001)

Discussion

• Begin with a summary of the goals and main results
• Comment on the significance of the results and set them in the context of previous work
• Keep references to a minimum by citing review articles as much as possible
• The Discussion should be concise and not excessively speculative

Conclusions

Present your highlights in a brief and succinct manner.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements should not be included until the manuscript is accepted, in order to ensure anonymised review. Collate acknowledgements in a separate section near the end of the manuscript and do not, therefore, include them on the title page, as a footnote to the title or otherwise. List here those individuals who provided help during the research (e.g. providing language help, writing assistance or proof-reading the article, etc.). Note that any use of AI tools should be disclosed separately, in the dedicated “Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies” section, not here.

End-of-manuscript sections — order

After the main text (Introduction through Conclusions), collate the following sections in this order:

1. Acknowledgements
2. Ethical approval statement (animal and/or human studies)
3. Declaration of Competing Interest
4. Data Availability Statement
5. Declaration of Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process
6. References

Data Availability Statement

Acceptable forms include, for example:

• “The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in [REPOSITORY NAME] at [DOI/URL].”
• “The data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, because [brief justification, e.g. ongoing longitudinal study, privacy of participating owners].”
• “The data are not available due to [specific legal, ethical, or privacy restriction].”

Depositing data in a public, open-access repository (e.g. OSF, Dryad, Figshare, Zenodo) with a permanent DOI is strongly encouraged and is required to qualify for an Open Data badge (see below).

Open Science Badges (optional)

Pet Behaviour Science recognises open research practices with optional badges displayed alongside the published article:

• Open Data — all digitally shareable data underlying the article are deposited in a public repository, with a DOI or permanent link provided in the Data Availability Statement
• Open Materials — all digitally shareable materials (e.g. questionnaires, ethograms, stimulus files, coding schemes) are deposited in a public repository with a permanent link
• Preregistered — the study’s hypotheses, design, and analysis plan were registered in a public registry (e.g. OSF Registries, AsPredicted) before data collection began, and the published article follows the registered plan or transparently reports any deviations

To request a badge, provide the relevant DOI/URL(s) at submission and indicate in the cover letter which badge(s) you are applying for. The editorial team verifies that the repository entry meets the criteria before the badge is awarded at publication. A generic “available upon request” statement does not qualify for the Open Data badge.

Other considerations for the text

Abbreviations and units

Standard dictionary abbreviations are generally acceptable. Other abbreviations should be explained when first mentioned. SI units are preferred.

References

Cite references in the text as, for example, Swabe (1998) or, if in parentheses, as (Daly & Morton, 2006). Where more than one paper has been published by the same author in the same year, the reference should be identified by a, b, c, etc. When listing multiple citations, place them in chronological order, separated by a semicolon: for example, (Harrison, 1998; Gibbs, 1999; Bekoff, 2006).

Paste references as plain text only. Do not use active fields from Zotero, EndNote, Mendeley or any other reference manager, as these embed hidden codes that cause errors on import. Check that all references in the text are in the reference list and vice versa, and that their dates and spelling match.

Tables

Tables must not be embedded in the Word document. Instead, follow the two-step process below.

Step 1 — Insert a placement marker in the text

At the point in your text where you want the table to appear, insert a marker on its own separate line, in bold, with no other text on that line, e.g. [TABLE 1]. The marker must be typed exactly as shown: square brackets, the word TABLE, a space, and the number. Plain-text or parenthetical mentions such as “Table 1” or “(Table 1)” anywhere else in the text are for narrative reference only and do not trigger placement.

Step 2 — Save each table as an image file

Export or save each table as a separate image file (JPEG or TIFF, minimum 300 dpi), with a short, descriptive title at the top and any necessary explanations (e.g. statistical test results) as footnotes below. Make sure every abbreviation used in a table is fully explained in a footnote. Send these image files alongside the .docx manuscript file. The label assigned to each image (“Table 1”, etc.) must match the marker in the text exactly, including the number.

Please use Helvetica or Arial font for all tables. During submission, tables should also be listed together at the end of the manuscript, labelled “Tables”, in addition to the inline markers.

Figures

All illustrative material (drawings, maps, diagrams, graphs and photographs) must be labelled “Figures” and must be cited in the text using the marker system described below.

Step 1 — Insert a placement marker in the text

As with tables, insert a bold marker on its own line, e.g. [FIGURE 1]. Figures should include any labels or markers that are part of the figure itself, in addition to the figure number or caption.

Step 2 — Save each figure as an image file

Save each figure as a separate image file (JPEG or TIFF, minimum 300 dpi, at a size allowing a 50% reduction without loss of legibility). Do not embed figures in the Word document. If you have a multi-part figure, submit it as a single image file with panels labelled within the image (a, b, c, etc.), rather than as multiple files.

If there is no image file matching a marker, the marker text will appear in the published PDF as a visible placeholder.

Labelling

• Use Helvetica or Arial font, consistently sized, for all labels within a figure (no more than a 2-point variation)
• Best results are obtained from black lettering on a white background
• Each chart or graph should incorporate a key to any symbols or patterns used, set inside the figure
• All graphs and plots should include axis lines on all four sides, forming a completely enclosed box. The y-axis label should be vertical
• Labels should be in bold, without full stops or underlining

Copyright

If the artwork you are transmitting has been published elsewhere or is otherwise copyrighted, please obtain the necessary permission to use it. Copyright and source information should be included in the figure caption.

Submitting your manuscript

Manuscript submission

Only electronic submission of manuscripts is allowed (please do not send by post). To submit a manuscript, you must be registered and logged in as an author.

In this first step, the submission should be one manuscript file only (all text and appendices in one file, tables and figures sent as separate image files — see Tables and Figures above), plus the “Essential Title Page Information” file. Manuscripts must not contain authors’ names and addresses, and the acknowledgements section must be left blank. Works which are not formatted properly, or not written in the template, may be returned to the author unread.

Authors whose first language is not English should have their paper checked by a native English speaker, or with the aid of a language-editing AI tool (see Use of Artificial Intelligence), prior to submission. Manuscripts in which the English is difficult to understand may be returned to the author for revision before scientific review. Manuscripts that are accepted, but incorrectly prepared or whose English is poor, may also be subject to delay in the press.

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis or as an electronic preprint), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was conducted. Your article may be checked to verify originality.

Once accepted, the work will be published under a creative commons license 4.0 and any publication of it must include its citation at Pet Behaviour Science, regardless of the language, or whether it is published in physical (i.e. paper) or electronic (i.e. ebook, web blog) format.

Fees

As Pet Behaviour Science is an open access journal which does not charge for paper reading, neither for submitting or publishing, it requires funds to support the edition process. Please consider donating to support the journal.

Referees

Please submit, with the manuscript, the names, affiliation and e-mail addresses of four potential referees. As we use double-anonymized peer review (DAPR), please make sure that all text that may reveal your identity is excluded from the source files.

Track Changes

Some word-processing programs offer authors the ability to check the changes they have made to their manuscript after making revisions. In MS-Word, this is called “Track Changes.” If you do use this or a similar utility, please remember to click “accept all changes” and deselect “Track Changes” before you send a final, electronic copy of any accepted manuscript. If this is not done, previously deleted material will reappear when the file is imported into our layout system, creating much confusion and an inevitable delay in the publication process.

What to Send

Please send the following files to the editorial office:

• Your completed manuscript as a .docx file, prepared in the official template
• The “Essential Title Page Information” as an independent file
• One image file per table (JPEG or TIFF, ≥ 300 dpi)
• One image file per figure (JPEG or TIFF, ≥ 300 dpi)

After submission

Criteria For Evaluation

Pet Behaviour Science is refereed and papers will be accepted only after appropriate double-anonymized review (DAPR). The general criteria for acceptance are that the research meets standards for publication in a specialist journal appropriate to its field and that it provides new information, sound hypotheses, or insightful analyses relevant to the content area of Pet Behaviour Science. This is a multidisciplinary journal, and authors should be aware that their own discipline’s jargon may be unfamiliar to readers from other disciplines. Please keep jargon to a minimum and provide a complete methods section. If in doubt, please err on the side of providing fuller explanations — the Editor can always cut material, but cannot add it.

Proofs

One set of proofs will be sent to the corresponding author as an e-mail attachment (PDF). Only typographic errors may be corrected at this stage.

On publication, authors will be sent a PDF e-print (with non-printing watermark) of the final, published version of their article for personal use. Contact Dr. David Menor-Campos for any doubts or enquiries.

Checklist

Although this is not an exhaustive list, it can help you improve your submission.

•  Manuscript written in the provided template file (pbs_author_template.docx), submitted as .docx
•  All section headings use Word’s built-in Heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, or Heading 3)
•  Font: 12 point Palatino Linotype, 1.5 line spacing, full-left alignment
•  Lines and pages are numbered
•  Manuscript does not contain authors’ names and addresses (double-anonymized peer review, DAPR)
•  “Essential Title Page Information” is submitted as an independent file
•  Title is brief and informative; a short title is provided
•  All authors’ names and affiliations are indicated clearly
•  Full postal address, e-mail, and telephone of the corresponding author are provided
•  Four potential referees are suggested
•  Abstract is concise, informative, explicit, intelligible, and does not exceed 300 words
•  At least three keywords are supplied
•  At least three highlights are supplied
•  Only results relevant to the hypotheses in the Introduction/Discussion are given; other results are supplementary “Additional Findings”
•  Statistics are reported in the proper format
•  Placement markers ([TABLE N] / [FIGURE N]) are inserted on their own bold lines, and every marker has a matching image file
•  Tables and figures are submitted as separate JPEG/TIFF image files (≥ 300 dpi), not embedded in the manuscript
•  References are in plain-text APA 7th edition format (no reference-manager fields), and every reference cited is listed and vice versa
•  Ethical approval statement (animal and/or human studies) is included, with committee name and protocol number
•  ASAB/ABS Guidelines followed; ARRIVE 2.0 Essential 10 items are reported in the Methods (for live-animal experiments)
•  Declaration of Competing Interest is included
•  Data Availability Statement is included
•  Any use of AI in manuscript preparation is disclosed in the dedicated “Declaration of Generative AI” section; no AI tool is listed as an author
•  No AI-generated or AI-modified images represent research data; any AI-generated explanatory diagram is labelled as such
•  No AI-fabricated data, results, or references are present anywhere in the manuscript
•  End-of-manuscript sections follow the required order (Acknowledgements, Ethical approval, Declaration of Competing Interest, Data Availability Statement, Declaration of Generative AI, References)
•  Acknowledgements are left blank until the manuscript is accepted
•  (Optional) DOI/URL for data, materials, or preregistration provided if applying for an Open Science badge