On October 25, 2022, Alexandra Horowitz, Senior Research Fellow and Adjunct Associate Professor of English and Psychology, and her colleagues published a new paper in the journal Biological Reviews titled, “Centring individual animals to improve research and citation practices.” The work closely examines several widely- cited studies of animal behavior, focusing on how their failure to consider the individual animals used in the research is highly problematic since it may result in neglect, welfare concerns, and, thereby, questionable ecological validity.
Horowitz and colleagues’ article aims to further the discourse on ethics and best practices in behavioral scholarship by highlighting gaps in seminal research papers; providing specific recommendations for how to cite past and future researchers in a way that is conscious of the conditions and treatment of participant animals; and proposing a method of reporting future behavioral research that improves replicability, accounts for individuality, and considers the impact of the animals’ welfare on the results of the experiment.