Research data · Disease model and test
Tail flick in pain conditions research
From 2021 to 2025, 293 animal research papers on pain conditions mentioned the tail flick in their title or abstract.
That is 33% fewer than the 440 papers of 2011 to 2015. Between the same two periods, the papers on pain conditions that mention any of the 90 tests we count rose 10%. The 2021 to 2025 count may run low because of a dip in PubMed's indexing, explained under the year chart.
Papers by year
Animal research papers on pain conditions that mention the tail flick, by year, 2001 to 2026
The 2026 bar counts papers added to PubMed by November 8, 2026.
- Papers in a full year
- 2026 so far
Show the counts for each year
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2001 | 63 |
| 2002 | 54 |
| 2003 | 77 |
| 2004 | 67 |
| 2005 | 84 |
| 2006 | 67 |
| 2007 | 86 |
| 2008 | 69 |
| 2009 | 81 |
| 2010 | 90 |
| 2011 | 96 |
| 2012 | 75 |
| 2013 | 87 |
| 2014 | 101 |
| 2015 | 81 |
| 2016 | 82 |
| 2017 | 60 |
| 2018 | 60 |
| 2019 | 64 |
| 2020 | 71 |
| 2021 | 70 |
| 2022 | 57 |
| 2023 | 47 |
| 2024 | 63 |
| 2025 | 56 |
| 2026 (part year) | 44 |
Papers on pain conditions that mention the tail flick fell from 70 in 2021 to 47 in 2023, then rose to 56 in 2025. Part of this dip may come from PubMed's indexing rather than from fewer studies. Where PubMed has indexed a paper, we take its disease models from that indexing. Otherwise PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, has to find the disease in the title or abstract, or the paper is not counted here. Papers that PubMed indexed under the subject heading Animals also fell and rose, from 200,221 in 2021 to 156,447 in 2023 and 235,479 in 2025.
Which species the papers used
Each bar is a share of the 293 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.
Species
“Other animals” counts papers that use none of the species this chart names.
Tests mentioned alongside the tail flick
Each bar is one test, with how many of the 293 papers also mention it, and what share that is. Of these papers, 90 (31%) mention no other test.
The 12 tests these papers mention most
Which papers count
A paper counts here when it is animal research, mentions the tail flick in its title or abstract, and studies pain conditions.
We tell whether a paper studies pain conditions from its MeSH terms, the subject headings the National Library of Medicine adds when it indexes a paper. For a paper without MeSH terms, PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, has to find the disease in the title or abstract. A paper can count under more than one disease model. A paper that mentions the test only in its methods is missed, so the count runs low.
The page on pain conditions research names the subject headings we count as pain conditions. Download the test list for the search terms we used for the tail flick, or the paper list for the PubMed ID of every paper behind these counts. Our main page, Behavioral tests in published research, has the full method and each source's terms of use.
More tests and disease models
Every pairing of a disease model and a test with 30 or more papers from 2021 to 2025 has a page like this one.
Papers on pain conditions that mention other tests
- Von Frey test 988 papers
- Hot plate 450 papers
- Formalin test 386 papers
- Writhing test 271 papers
- Open field 199 papers
- Hargreaves plantar test 147 papers
- Gait analysis 146 papers
- Rotarod 146 papers
- Forced swim test 136 papers
- Elevated plus maze 128 papers
- Conditioned place preference 100 papers
- Acetone test 76 papers
- Grip strength 65 papers
- Cold plate 56 papers
- Sucrose preference test 56 papers
- Treadmill running 55 papers
- Paw pressure test 52 papers
- Tail suspension test 51 papers
- Wheel running 46 papers
- Morris water maze 45 papers
- Novel object recognition 42 papers
- Self-administration 32 papers
The page on the tail flick counts all the papers that mention it, whatever they study. The page on pain conditions research ranks the tests by their papers on pain conditions.
How to cite
APA
ConductScience. (2026, November 10). Tail flick in pain conditions research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/pain/tail-flick
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_pain_tail_flick_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Tail flick in pain conditions research},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/pain/tail-flick},
note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
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