Second Edition: Research on the Human–Companion Animal Relationship

Dear Colleagues,

Last year, our Special Issue on human–pet relationships was rather successful, and some very inspiring manuscripts were submitted and published.

The success of this first Special Issue on the topic has now encouraged us to plan a second one for 2024.

In principle, what was said in the announcement of last year's issue still holds—scientific relevant concepts (in animal welfare, behavioural and social psychology, neurobiology, etc.) as well as research techniques (behavioural genetics/genomics, endocrinology, neuroimagery, artificial intelligence/deep learning) in the field have been on the rise in recent years.

In addition to looking at "traditional pets", we especially encourage contributions regarding the following:

• Humanities and social sciences outside the fields of biology and veterinary medicine;
• Species other than dogs and cats, including non-domesticated species (considering possible conservation issues relating to, e.g., keeping reptiles, amphibians, etc.)
• Feral populations of domesticated species insofar as they help to better understand the needs and necessities of species under human care (e.g., activity budgets, ranging behaviour, dietary composition, etc.).

Dr. Udo Ganslosser
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• social behaviour in mammals
• zoobiology
• human–nonhuman–animal relationship
• behavioural aspects of animal welfare and conservation biology

• Research on the Human–Pet Relationship in Animals (16 articles)