Research data · Disease model and test

Self-administration in substance use disorders research

From 2021 to 2025, 807 animal research papers on substance use disorders mentioned self-administration in their title or abstract.

That is 15% fewer than the 955 papers of 2011 to 2015. Between the same two periods, the papers on substance use disorders that mention any of the 90 tests we count fell 12%. The 2021 to 2025 count may run low because of a dip in PubMed's indexing, explained under the year chart.

807 papers on substance use disorders from 2021 to 2025 mentioned self-administration
50% of the papers on substance use disorders that mention any test mention self-administration
58% of the papers that mention self-administration are on substance use disorders
15% fewer papers than in 2011 to 2015

Papers by year

Animal research papers on substance use disorders that mention self-administration, 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
Papers by year
YearPapers
200183
2002110
200397
2004101
2005106
2006121
2007161
2008175
2009153
2010137
2011152
2012186
2013204
2014229
2015184
2016200
2017199
2018218
2019196
2020210
2021204
2022145
2023142
2024152
2025164
2026 (part year)142

Papers on substance use disorders that mention self-administration fell from 204 in 2021 to 142 in 2023, then rose to 164 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 807 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.

Species

Rat
587 papers 73%
Mouse
195 papers 24%
Nonhuman primate
43 papers 5%
Other animals
36 papers 4%
Fruit fly
4 papers under 1%
Zebrafish
2 papers under 1%

“Other animals” counts papers that use none of the species this chart names.

Tests mentioned alongside self-administration

Each bar is one test, with how many of the 807 papers also mention it, and what share that is. Of these papers, 571 (71%) mention no other test.

The 12 tests these papers mention most

Which papers count

A paper counts here when it is animal research, mentions self-administration in its title or abstract, and studies substance use disorders.

We tell whether a paper studies substance use disorders 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 substance use disorders research names the subject headings we count as substance use disorders. Download the test list for the search terms we used for self-administration, 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 other disease models that mention self-administration

The page on self-administration counts all the papers that mention it, whatever they study. The page on substance use disorders research ranks the tests by their papers on substance use disorders.

How to cite

APA

ConductScience. (2026, November 10). Self-administration in substance use disorders research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/substance-use/self-administration

BibTeX

@misc{conductscience_substance_use_self_administration_2026,
  author = {{ConductScience}},
  title = {Self-administration in substance use disorders research},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  url = {https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/models/substance-use/self-administration},
  note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}

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