ReviewAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI2013
Searching for Animal Sentience: A Systematic Review of the Scientific Literature.
Review in Animals : an open access journal from MDPI, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 142 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- The 5% Problem: How the Biomedical Community Responded to the Animal-to-Human Translation Crisis, and the Case for Non-Animal Methods.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Review
- The Primate Welfare INdicators project (PWIN): For an objective and standardised welfare assessment of non-human primates used in research.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2026Article
- Article
- Unveiling welfare concerns in Japanese exotic animal cafes.The Journal of veterinary medical science · 2025Article
- Why Humans Prefer Phylogenetically Closer Species: An Evolutionary, Neurocognitive, and Cultural Synthesis.Biology · 2025Review
- Editorial: Fish Welfare in Aquaculture and Research-Where Are We Going?Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Effect of a portion-size default nudge on meat consumption and diner satisfaction: controlled experiments in Stanford University dining halls.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Chains of Commerce: A Comprehensive Review of Animal Welfare Impacts in the International Wildlife Trade.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Review
- Cognitive Bias in Adult Zebrafish (Veterinary sciences · 2025Review
- Stepwise Imperatives for Improving the Protection of Animals in Research and Education in Canada.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland's Approach to Assessing and Promoting Animal Welfare in Collaboration with Universities.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- Near and Dear? If animal welfare concepts do not apply to species at a great phylogenetic distance from humans, what concepts might serve as alternatives?Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2024Review
- In search of prosociality in rodents: A scoping review.PloS one · 2024Article
- Listen to Us: Perceptions of Animal Voice and Agency.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Article
- The sentience shift in animal research.The New bioethics : a multidisciplinary journal of biotechnology and the body · 2022Article
- Cognitive bias in animal behavior science: a philosophical perspective.Animal cognition · 2022Article
- Alternative Paradigms in Animal Health Decisions: A Framework for Treating Animals Not Only as Commodities.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- A Kettle of Fish: A Review of the Scientific Literature for Evidence of Fish Sentience.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Knowledge of animal sentience is fundamental to many disciplines and imperative to the animal welfare movement. In this review, we examined what is being explored and discussed, regarding animal sentience, within the scientific literature. Rather than attempting to extract meaning from the many complex and abstract definitions of animal sentience, we searched over two decades of scientific literature using a peer-reviewed list of 174 keywords. The list consisted of human emotions, terminology associated with animal sentience, and traits often thought to be indicative of subjective states. We discovered that very little was actually being explored, and instead there was already much agreement about what animals can feel. Why then is there so much scepticism surrounding the science of animal sentience? Sentience refers to the subjective states of animals, and so is often thought to be impossible to measure objectively. However, when we consider that much of the research found to accept and utilise animal sentience is performed for the development of human drugs and treatment, it appears that measuring sentience is, after all, not quite as impossible as was previously thought. In this paper, we explored what has been published on animal sentience in the scientific literature and where the gaps in research lie. We drew conclusions on the implications for animal welfare science and argued for the importance of addressing these gaps in our knowledge. We found that there is a need for more research on positive emotional states in animals, and that there is still much to learn about taxa such as invertebrates. Such information will not only be useful in supporting and initiating legislative amendments but will help to increase understanding, and potentially positive actions and attitudes towards animals.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.