Research data ยท Depression-like behavior
Forced swim test
From 2021 to 2025, 2,988 animal research papers mentioned the forced swim test in their title or abstract, ranking it fourth of the 90 tests we track.
That is 1.2 times the 2,444 papers of 2011 to 2015. Between the same two periods, all the animal research papers that mention any of the 90 tests we count grew about as fast, to 1.2 times as many.
Papers by year
Animal research papers that mention 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 | 122 |
| 2002 | 128 |
| 2003 | 150 |
| 2004 | 170 |
| 2005 | 209 |
| 2006 | 215 |
| 2007 | 253 |
| 2008 | 352 |
| 2009 | 295 |
| 2010 | 347 |
| 2011 | 399 |
| 2012 | 437 |
| 2013 | 473 |
| 2014 | 578 |
| 2015 | 557 |
| 2016 | 596 |
| 2017 | 597 |
| 2018 | 609 |
| 2019 | 612 |
| 2020 | 644 |
| 2021 | 652 |
| 2022 | 610 |
| 2023 | 513 |
| 2024 | 575 |
| 2025 | 638 |
| 2026 (part year) | 571 |
Papers that mention the forced swim test fell from 652 in 2021 to 513 in 2023, then rose to 638 in 2025. Part of this dip may come from PubMed's indexing rather than from fewer studies. When PubMed's indexing names a paper's species, we use it. 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.
Papers that mention the forced swim test, by species, 2001 to 2025
- Mouse
- Rat
Show the counts for each year and species
| Year | Mouse | Rat |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 67 | 68 |
| 2002 | 56 | 75 |
| 2003 | 60 | 100 |
| 2004 | 85 | 100 |
| 2005 | 103 | 118 |
| 2006 | 106 | 117 |
| 2007 | 138 | 124 |
| 2008 | 190 | 183 |
| 2009 | 151 | 152 |
| 2010 | 178 | 189 |
| 2011 | 203 | 207 |
| 2012 | 220 | 234 |
| 2013 | 268 | 230 |
| 2014 | 304 | 290 |
| 2015 | 283 | 278 |
| 2016 | 325 | 286 |
| 2017 | 340 | 271 |
| 2018 | 338 | 273 |
| 2019 | 320 | 298 |
| 2020 | 376 | 279 |
| 2021 | 374 | 292 |
| 2022 | 347 | 273 |
| 2023 | 304 | 218 |
| 2024 | 331 | 257 |
| 2025 | 384 | 274 |
Which species the papers used
Each bar is a share of the 2,988 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.
Species
โOther animalsโ counts papers that use none of the species this chart names.
Strains and genetic lines
Strain names come from the MeSH terms PubMed adds when it indexes a paper. PubMed has indexed 2,316 of the 2,988 papers, so each bar is a share of those 2,316.
A paper indexed under two of these headings, such as knockout mice and a strain, counts under both.
Disease models in papers that mention the forced swim test
Each bar is one disease model, with how many of the 2,988 papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention the forced swim test use it, and what share that is. The model comes from the paper's MeSH terms, the subject headings the National Library of Medicine adds when it indexes a paper. A paper without MeSH terms gets its model from PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, if PubTator 3 finds the disease in the title or abstract. A paper can count under more than one model.
Papers from 2021 to 2025 by disease model
Tests mentioned alongside the forced swim test
Each bar is one test, with how many of the 2,988 papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention the forced swim test also mention it, and what share that is.
Papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention both tests
To count the papers that mention three or more tests together, start from the forced swim test in the test battery tool.
The most cited papers from 2021 to 2025
These papers from 2021 to 2025 mention the forced swim test and have the most citations, as counted by NIH's iCite on November 5, 2026.
Edaravone ameliorates depressive and anxiety-like behaviors via Sirt1/Nrf2/HO-1/Gpx4 pathway.
J Neuroinflammation, 2022. 467 citations.
Brain Behav Immun, 2021. 231 citations.
Brain Behav Immun, 2021. 227 citations.
Lipopolysaccharide-induced depression-like model in mice: meta-analysis and systematic evaluation.
Front Immunol, 2023. 139 citations.
J Neuroinflammation, 2021. 133 citations.
How we counted
A count is the number of animal research papers whose title or abstract mentions one of the test's search terms. It is not a count of experiments, labs or animals.
A paper that mentions the forced swim test only in its methods is missed, so the count runs low. The count includes 46 reviews. For 674 of the 2,988 papers, PubMed's indexing gave no species, so the species came from PubTator 3 finding one in the title or abstract.
The test's search terms are in the test list download. The full method, with each source and its terms of use, is on our main page, Behavioral tests in published research.
More depression-like behavior tests
These depression-like behavior tests also have a page, with their papers from 2021 to 2025. Each test with 30 or more papers gets one.
How to cite
APA
ConductScience. (2026, November 10). Forced swim test in published research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/forced-swim-test
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_forced_swim_test_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Forced swim test in published research},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/forced-swim-test},
note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}Apparatus for the forced swim test
Our store sells two products for the forced swim test.
Shop the apparatusPapers that name our apparatus
We keep our own list of published papers whose text names our equipment. Those that mention the forced swim test in the title or abstract are already in the counts above.
- 1 paper from 2023 names our Forced Swim Test. See the papers
