Research data ยท Home-cage behavior
Self-grooming
From 2021 to 2025, 447 animal research papers mentioned self-grooming in their title or abstract, ranking it 29th of the 90 tests we track.
That is 1.6 times the 278 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 more slowly, to 1.2 times as many.
Papers by year
Animal research papers that mention self-grooming, 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 | 28 |
| 2002 | 30 |
| 2003 | 31 |
| 2004 | 31 |
| 2005 | 35 |
| 2006 | 39 |
| 2007 | 17 |
| 2008 | 43 |
| 2009 | 33 |
| 2010 | 33 |
| 2011 | 44 |
| 2012 | 57 |
| 2013 | 54 |
| 2014 | 55 |
| 2015 | 68 |
| 2016 | 56 |
| 2017 | 68 |
| 2018 | 71 |
| 2019 | 73 |
| 2020 | 70 |
| 2021 | 99 |
| 2022 | 97 |
| 2023 | 92 |
| 2024 | 67 |
| 2025 | 92 |
| 2026 (part year) | 100 |
Papers that mention self-grooming fell from 99 in 2021 to 67 in 2024, then rose to 92 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 self-grooming, by species, 2001 to 2025
- Mouse
- Rat
Show the counts for each year and species
| Year | Mouse | Rat |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 1 | 21 |
| 2002 | 4 | 18 |
| 2003 | 7 | 16 |
| 2004 | 8 | 16 |
| 2005 | 6 | 19 |
| 2006 | 7 | 17 |
| 2007 | 7 | 6 |
| 2008 | 7 | 24 |
| 2009 | 11 | 13 |
| 2010 | 15 | 12 |
| 2011 | 19 | 18 |
| 2012 | 21 | 17 |
| 2013 | 16 | 18 |
| 2014 | 16 | 21 |
| 2015 | 20 | 23 |
| 2016 | 15 | 18 |
| 2017 | 23 | 25 |
| 2018 | 25 | 26 |
| 2019 | 30 | 22 |
| 2020 | 27 | 26 |
| 2021 | 56 | 21 |
| 2022 | 39 | 27 |
| 2023 | 38 | 29 |
| 2024 | 31 | 19 |
| 2025 | 47 | 26 |
Which species the papers used
Each bar is a share of the 447 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 375 of the 447 papers, so each bar is a share of those 375.
A paper indexed under two of these headings, such as knockout mice and a strain, counts under both.
Disease models in papers that mention self-grooming
Each bar is one disease model, with how many of the 447 papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention self-grooming 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 self-grooming
Each bar is one test, with how many of the 447 papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention self-grooming 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 self-grooming in the test battery tool.
The most cited papers from 2021 to 2025
These papers from 2021 to 2025 mention self-grooming and have the most citations, as counted by NIH's iCite on November 5, 2026.
Brain Behav Immun, 2022. 140 citations.
Neural control of affiliative touch in prosocial interaction.
Nature, 2021. 114 citations.
A Drosophila computational brain model reveals sensorimotor processing.
Nature, 2024. 57 citations.
Biol Psychiatry, 2022. 57 citations.
J Ethnopharmacol, 2022. 51 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 self-grooming only in its methods is missed, so the count runs low. The count includes 7 reviews. For 72 of the 447 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 home-cage behavior tests
These home-cage 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). Self-grooming in published research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/self-grooming
BibTeX
@misc{conductscience_self_grooming_2026,
author = {{ConductScience}},
title = {Self-grooming in published research},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://conductscience.com/resources/data/behavioral-tests/self-grooming},
note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}