Animal Cognition

Animal Cognition (commonly abbreviated as Anim. Cogn.) is a research journal in animal cognition published by Springer. Founded in July 1998 by Dr Tatiana Czeschlik of the Institute of Animal Behaviour at the University of Hamburg, it publishes scientific papers on animal cognition, comparative psychology and animal welfare, with a 2025 impact factor of 2.3.Animal Cognition（常用缩写 Anim. Cogn.）是 Springer 出版的动物认知类研究期刊，1998 年 7 月由德国汉堡大学动物行为研究所的 Tatiana Czeschlik 创办，刊载关于动物认知、比较心理学与动物福利的科学论文，2025 年影响因子为 2.3。^[1]

Scope

• Genre: the journal publishes scientific papers and reviews. Its articles are classified officially as research articles, and their content centres on cognitive processes.体裁定位： 刊发科学论文与综述，文章类型在官方分类中归属研究论文一类，其内容以认知过程的研究为主。
• Subject coverage: the journal covers perception, learning, memory, spatial cognition, object concepts, social cognition and decision-making, as well as more contentious topics such as imitation, consciousness and self-recognition.收录主题： 涵盖知觉、学习、记忆、空间认知、物体概念、社会认知与决策，以及模仿学习、意识与自我识别等较有争议的议题。
• Comparative orientation: the journal stresses the treatment of cognitive questions through cross-species comparison, accepting both comparative psychology and behavioural ecology approaches, and covering both laboratory and field research.比较取向： 期刊强调以跨物种的比较方法处理认知问题，比较心理学与行为生态学的取向兼收，实验室与野外研究均在范围之内。
• Animal welfare: animal welfare is an explicitly stated area of submission. Work on what cognitive capacities imply for the management of captive animals and for judgements about animal ethics is a recurring subject here.动物福利： 动物福利是被明确列为收稿方向的领域，研究认知能力对圈养动物管理与动物伦理判断的意义是本刊的稳定题材。
• Peer review and open access: the journal follows a single-blind procedure, normally with one referee and one editor, the editor being free to send a paper out for further review. In January 2024 the journal converted to full open access and every article is now free to read, whereas before the change authors in the subscription model could use colour figures free of charge.评审与开放获取： 期刊实行单匿名评审，通常由一位审稿人与一位编辑共同评审，编辑可以自行决定是否再送外审；自 2024 年 1 月起期刊转为完全开放获取，全部文章均可免费阅读全文，而此前的订阅模式下作者可免费使用彩图。^[2]

History

• July 1998: the journal was founded by Dr Tatiana Czeschlik of the Institute of Animal Behaviour at the University of Hamburg, who also became its first editor-in-chief.1998年7月： 期刊创刊，由德国汉堡大学的动物行为研究所的 Tatiana Czeschlik 创办并出任首任主编。
• Background to the founding: research on animal cognition was at the time becoming a field in its own right, while the relevant results were scattered across journals of behavioural science, psychology and neuroscience. Czeschlik founded the journal to give the field a dedicated place to publish.创刊背景： 当时动物认知研究正在成为一个独立的研究领域，原有的相关成果分散在行为学、心理学与神经科学的各类刊物中，Czeschlik 创办本刊即为给这一领域一个专门的发表场所。
• Interruptions and changes of publisher: the journal's history includes a substantial interruption to publication and a change of publisher. It was published in the early years by Springer in Germany, after which publication was for a period interrupted and the editorial arrangements altered, and normal publication was only restored in recent years.沿革中的几次中断： 期刊历史上曾出现较长的出版中断与出版方更替，早年曾由德国 Springer 出版社出版，其后出版一度中断并伴随编务变动，至近年方恢复正常出版。
• Indexing status: the journal is now indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded and in PsycINFO, and is also covered by the Chinese Science Citation Database. Its 2025 impact factor is 2.3, holding the first quartile in the Behavioral Sciences category.收录状态的变化： 期刊现收录于科学引文索引扩展版与心理学文献检索系统，同时被中国科学引文数据库收录，2025 年影响因子为 2.3，在行为科学类别中保持第一区。
• Conversion to open access: the journal converted from a subscription or hybrid model to full open access in January 2024 and no longer collects subscription income.开放获取转型： 期刊自 2024 年 1 月起由订阅制或混合制转为完全开放获取，不再收取订阅费用。
• Contraction in frequency: from 2024 the journal appears as a single combined issue a year rather than in quarterly numbers. The pace of publication has slowed markedly and the editors have offered no separate explanation of the change.刊期收缩： 期刊自 2024 年起改为每年仅出版一卷一期的合刊，不再按季出刊，出版节奏明显放慢，编辑部未就此变更另作专门说明。
• An important clarification: the Cognition in the title refers to the cognitive capacities of animals, not to ethical claims about animals or politically construed positions on consciousness. The phrase is easily misread straight from the title.重要澄清： 刊名中的 Cognition 指的是动物的认知能力，而非动物伦理主张或政治意义上的意识立场，这是从刊名读起时容易产生的误解。^[3]

Editors

• Editor-in-chief: the journal is led by Dr Claudia Wascher of the University of Vienna in Austria. Her research addresses social cognition, cooperative behaviour and the mechanisms of task allocation, with her work on cranes being a representative example.现任主编： 期刊主编为 Claudia Wascher 博士，任职于奥地利维也纳大学，其研究关注社会认知、协作行为与任务的分配机制，鹤类研究是她的代表性工作。
• Tenure and predecessor: Wascher took over as editor-in-chief in 2023, succeeding Debbie J. Kelly, who had held the post for a long period.主编任期与前任： Wascher 于 2023 年接任主编，接替此前长期担任该职的 Debbie J. Kelly。
• Associate editors: the journal has six associate editors, covering cognitive neuroscience, social cognition, comparative psychology, animal welfare, language and concepts.副编辑： 期刊设副编辑六位，分属认知神经科学、社会认知、比较心理学、动物福利、语言与概念等方向。
• Editorial board: the board numbers about twenty-seven members from a number of countries, composed mainly of experimental psychologists and behavioural ecologists together with members working in veterinary and animal welfare fields, so that evaluation can weigh both behavioural evidence and practical consequences.编委构成： 编委成员约二十七位，来自多个国家，以实验心理学家与行为生态学家为主体，另有兽医与动物福利方向的成员，使稿件评价能够同时顾到行为学证据与应用后果。
• Submission and acceptance: manuscripts are lodged through the publisher's online submission system, with a median of nine days from submission to first decision. The editors also publish average durations for each stage from submission to acceptance, and the officially published acceptance rate of around twenty-five percent is high for a journal of this kind.投稿与录用： 稿件通过出版方在线投稿系统递交，投稿至首次决定的中位数为九天，编辑部同时公布文章接受率与自投稿至录用各环节的平均用时，官方公布的文章接受率为百分之二十五左右，属该类期刊中的偏高水平。
• Special requirements in review: where a manuscript involves animal experiments, the editors require an account in the methods of husbandry conditions, the effect of the procedure on animal welfare and the measures taken to mitigate it. The requirement matches the journal's standing of listing animal welfare as a formal area of submission.评审中的特别要求： 若稿件涉及动物实验，编辑部要求作者在方法部分说明动物的饲养条件、实验对动物福利的影响以及为减轻影响所作的处理，这一要求与期刊把动物福利列为正式收稿方向的定位相互配合。^[4]