Target issue: Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews, vol. 21, 2026
Due date for authors: Friday, October 3, 2025

In 1976, Donald Griffin published The Question of Animal Awareness. This volume helped to establish the field of cognitive ethology, and took seriously the prospect of nonhuman animal consciousness. The book has been influential, gaining supporters and detractors for its central position. The conversation remains vigorous. In April 2024, scientists gathered at NYU to discuss relevant findings and to write the New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness, which suggests that conscious experience is widespread in the animal kingdom. Hundreds of scientists have since signed on in endorsing the document.

The editors of Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews (CCBR) are interested in brief commentaries from researchers regarding the “question of animal awareness.” Relevant questions for prospective authors include, but are not limited to: What is the state of the science? Are there reasons to doubt the argument of the New York Declaration and Griffin’s (1976) interpretation? What are the implications of widespread consciousness in nonhuman animals? What are current problems in the field that must be addressed?

Commentaries should be brief—fewer than 2500 words—and will be subject to usual standards of peer-review and editorial approval. Accepted commentaries will be packaged together for publication in 2026 as a special volume of CCBR.

This call is open to everyone working in the field of comparative cognition and related disciplines, broadly defined.

Manuscripts should be formatted in APA style (7th ed.) in Word, and should be submitted via email to the editors, as should any questions or concerns:

Dave Stahlman (wdstahlm@umw.edu)
Marisa Hoeschele (marisa.hoeschele@oeaw.ac.at)

We look forward to reading your work!

Best,

Dave Stahlman
CCBR Editor
Department of Psychological Science
University of Mary Washington

Marisa Hoeschele
CCBR Editor
Acoustics Research Institute
Austrian Academy of Sciences