Animal Assisted Interventions: Effects and Mechanisms of Action

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue welcomes submissions including primary research focused on the efficacy of animal-assisted interventions to improve human health and wellbeing, including physical, mental health and behavioral issues. Research papers may also explore the mechanism of action of animal-assisted interventions and the benefits and drawbacks of involvement in such interventions for the animals and humans involved. Research focusing on how animal-assisted interventions are currently being used to augment or as an alternative to standard treatments' is also welcomed. This Special Issue intends to move forward the knowledge on what issues animal-assisted interventions are effective for and what their mechanism of action may be. In addition, papers which include findings relating to the positive or negative impacts on the animals involved in animal-assisted interventions will be considered.

Prof. Dr. Ann Hemingway
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.

• animal-assisted interventions
• behavior change
• human animal communication