Research data · Animal model and test
Forced swim test with exercise
From 2021 to 2025, 122 animal research papers mentioned exercise and the forced swim test in their title or abstract.
That is 1.9 times the 64 papers of 2011 to 2015. Between the same two periods, the papers that mention exercise and any of the 90 tests we count grew about as fast, to 1.9 times as many.
Papers by year
Animal research papers that mention exercise and the forced swim test, 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 | 3 |
| 2002 | 0 |
| 2003 | 4 |
| 2004 | 4 |
| 2005 | 3 |
| 2006 | 3 |
| 2007 | 8 |
| 2008 | 6 |
| 2009 | 13 |
| 2010 | 8 |
| 2011 | 8 |
| 2012 | 10 |
| 2013 | 11 |
| 2014 | 16 |
| 2015 | 19 |
| 2016 | 23 |
| 2017 | 17 |
| 2018 | 21 |
| 2019 | 28 |
| 2020 | 29 |
| 2021 | 27 |
| 2022 | 35 |
| 2023 | 21 |
| 2024 | 19 |
| 2025 | 20 |
| 2026 (part year) | 20 |
Papers that mention exercise and the forced swim test fell from 27 in 2021 to 19 in 2024, then rose to 20 in 2025. Part of this dip may come from PubMed's indexing rather than from fewer studies. We take a paper's species from PubMed's indexing when the indexing names one. Otherwise PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, has to find a species in the title or abstract, or the paper is not counted. 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 122 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 forced swim test
Each bar is one test, with how many of the 122 papers also mention it, and what share that is. Of these papers, 58 (48%) mention no other test.
The 12 tests these papers mention most
Which papers count
A paper counts here when it is animal research and its title or abstract mentions exercise and the forced swim test.
A paper that mentions either only in its methods is missed, so the count runs low. The search terms are in the list of models and techniques and the test list. The full method, with each source and its terms of use, is on our main page, Behavioral tests in published research.
More pairings
Every pairing of an animal model and a test with 30 or more papers from 2021 to 2025 has a page like this one.
Other tests with exercise
- Grip strength 187 papers
- Morris water maze 153 papers
- Rotarod 109 papers
- Open field 106 papers
- Elevated plus maze 83 papers
- Novel object recognition 81 papers
- Sucrose preference test 41 papers
- Passive avoidance 40 papers
- Gait analysis 36 papers
- Y-maze 36 papers
- Tail suspension test 33 papers
- Von Frey test 30 papers
The forced swim test with other animal models and brain techniques
- Chronic unpredictable stress 570 papers
- Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) 200 papers
- Restraint stress 186 papers
- Maternal separation and early-life stress 91 papers
- Social defeat stress 90 papers
- Intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection 58 papers
- Ovariectomy 57 papers
- Chronic corticosterone 55 papers
- Social isolation 53 papers
- Reserpine 52 papers
- AAV vectors 50 papers
- High-fat diet 47 papers
- Intranasal delivery 46 papers
- Streptozotocin diabetes 42 papers
- Sleep deprivation 39 papers
- Environmental enrichment 30 papers
The page on the forced swim test counts all the papers that mention it, whatever they study. The page on exercise ranks the tests mentioned with it.
How to cite
APA
ConductScience. (2026, November 13). Forced swim test with exercise [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/resources/data/animal-models/exercise/forced-swim-test
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_exercise_forced_swim_test_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Forced swim test with exercise},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/resources/data/animal-models/exercise/forced-swim-test},
note = {Data set, released November 13, 2026},
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