Animal Centered Computing: Enriching the Lives of Animals

Dear Colleagues,

This special issue aims to explore the opportunities and challenges of addressing behavioural issues with animals whether they be in captivity, companion animals or animals in the wild. The work we invite continues work to develop, test and further enrichment levels by the addition of some form of technologies into the design of environments, activities or artefacts.

We encourage authors to submit original research articles, case studies, reviews, theoretical and critical perspectives, and viewpoint articles that address animal enrichment issues and environments.

These may include but are not limited to:

• Theoretical framings and the design of artefacts and environments for animal enrichment and/or learning
• Critical engagement with the considerations and consequences of animal computer interaction and animal centred computing technologies
• How new advances in interactive technologies influence how we understand enriched environments and solutions for animals in captivity, companion animals and animals in the wild
• Exploration of methods or methodological approaches appropriate for designing and researching animal centred enrichment solutions
• Case studies of the design and research of animal centred enrichment solutions
• Empirical studies on the application of animal centred computing for animals in captivity, companion animals and for animals in the wild
• Emerging trends and potentials in the research and design of animal centred enrichment technologies and environments
• Conservation planning and conservation application examples, case studies, articles and viable solutions
• Mixed solutions that address post human research and contemporary urban solutions (e.g. slow cities) that would address vulnerable populations and by extension, also serve to enrich the lives of animals in those environments. 

Of particular interest are articles that critically explore animal centred enrichment and learning environments, when designing for inclusion and/or different abilities, and interdisciplinary perspectives on animal centred design.

Assoc. Prof. Ann Morrison
Assoc. Prof. Barbara Bollard
Guest Editors

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Multimodal Technologies and Interaction is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 1800 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.