World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
H-index 24

Behavioral and Brain Sciences

0140-525X

Published by: Cambridge University Press

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences

Ranking & Metrics

Discipline name Position Best Scientists Publications D-Index
Neuroscience 279 89 102 10
Psychology 293 367 442 20

Additional Metrics

Number of Best Scientists*: 534
Documents by Best Scientists*: 599
Top 100 Ranked Scientists*: 27
SCIMAGO H-index: 183
SCIMAGO SJR: 0.547
Impact Factor: 13.7

Overview

Top Research Topics at Behavioral and Brain Sciences?

The discussions in Behavioral and Brain Sciences mainly cover the fields of Cognitive psychology, Cognitive science, Epistemology, Social psychology and Cognition. Cognitive psychology and Perception are closely related fields of research discussed in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

  • Cognitive psychology (17.62%)
  • Cognitive science (15.76%)
  • Epistemology (10.35%)

What are the most cited papers published in the journal?

  • Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind (5204 citations)
  • The magical number 4 in short-term memory: a reconsideration of mental storage capacity. (4544 citations)
  • Perceptual symbol systems. (4365 citations)

Research areas of the most cited articles at Behavioral and Brain Sciences:

The published papers investigate areas of study like Cognitive psychology, Cognitive science, Cognition, Neuroscience and Social psychology. While work presented in the journal publications provide substantial information on Cognitive psychology, it also covers topics in Stimulus (physiology), Consciousness and Perception. In addition to Cognitive science research, the published articles aim to explore topics under Epistemology, Mental representation and Connectionism.

What topics the last edition of the journal is best known for?

  • Artificial intelligence
  • Cognition
  • Epistemology

The previous edition focused in particular on these issues:

The primary areas of discussion in the journal are Cognitive psychology, Cognitive science, Social bonding, Musicality and Cognition. The journal facilitates discussions on Cognitive psychology that incorporate concepts from other fields like Perspective (graphical), Volition (psychology), Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and Foraging. In it, Test (assessment), Domain (software engineering), SIGNAL (programming language), Musical and Sociality are investigated in conjunction with one another to address concerns in Cognitive science research.

While work presented in Behavioral and Brain Sciences provided substantial information on Social bonding, it also covered topics in Dance and Adaptation (computer science). The studies on Musicality discussed can also contribute to research in the domains of Epistemology and Focus (linguistics). The studies in Cognition featured incorporate elements of Mechanism (sociology) and Separation (statistics).

The most cited articles from the last journal are:

  • Music as a coevolved system for social bonding. (34 citations)
  • Origins of music in credible signaling. (19 citations)
  • It's not a bug, it's boredom: Effortful willpower balances exploitation and exploration (5 citations)

Papers citation over time

A key indicator for each journal is its effectiveness in reaching other researchers with the papers published at that venue.

The chart below presents the interquartile range (first quartile 25%, median 50% and third quartile 75%) of the number of citations of articles over time.

The top authors publishing in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (based on the number of publications) are:

  • Daniel C. Dennett (51 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Bruce Bridgeman (44 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Stephen Grossberg (32 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Robert J. Sternberg (31 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Howard Rachlin (31 papers) absent at the last edition.

The overall trend for top authors publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top authors.

Only papers with recognized affiliations are considered

The top affiliations publishing in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (based on the number of publications) are:

  • University of California (239 papers) absent at the last edition,
  • Harvard University (219 papers) published 8 papers at the last edition, 2 more than at the previous edition,
  • Max Planck Society (177 papers) published 7 papers at the last edition, 1 less than at the previous edition,
  • University of Oxford (161 papers) published 4 papers at the last edition, 3 more than at the previous edition,
  • University of Michigan (158 papers) published 1 paper at the last edition, 4 less than at the previous edition.

The overall trend for top affiliations publishing in this journal is outlined below. The chart shows the number of publications at each edition of the journal for top affiliations.

Publication chance based on affiliation

The publication chance index shows the ratio of articles published by the best research institutions in the journal edition to all articles published within that journal. The best research institutions were selected based on the largest number of articles published during all editions of the journal.

The chart below presents the percentage ratio of articles from top institutions (based on their ranking of total papers).Top affiliations were grouped by their rank into the following tiers: top 1-10, top 11-20, top 21-50, and top 51+. Only articles with a recognized affiliation are considered.

During the most recent 2021 edition, 8.05% of publications had an unrecognized affiliation. Out of the publications with recognized affiliations, 19.71% were posted by at least one author from the top 10 institutions publishing in the journal. Another 6.57% included authors affiliated with research institutions from the top 11-20 affiliations. Institutions from the 21-50 range included 16.06% of all publications and 57.66% were from other institutions.

Returning Authors Index

A very common phenomenon observed among researchers publishing scientific articles is the intentional selection of journals they have already attended in the past. In particular, it is worth analyzing the case when the authors participate in the same journal from year to year.

The Returning Authors Index presented below illustrates the ratio of authors who participated in both a given as well as the previous edition of the journal in relation to all participants in a given year.

Returning Institution Index

The graph below shows the Returning Institution Index, illustrating the ratio of institutions that participated in both a given and the previous edition of the conference in relation to all affiliations present in a given year.

The experience to innovation index

Our experience to innovation index was created to show a cross-section of the experience level of authors publishing in a journal. The index includes the authors publishing at the last edition of a journal, grouped by total number of publications throughout their academic career (P) and the total number of citations of these publications ever received (C).

The group intervals were selected empirically to best show the diversity of the authors' experiences, their labels were selected as a convenience, not as judgment. The authors were divided into the following groups:

  • Novice - P < 5 or C < 25 (the number of publications less than 5 or the number of citations less than 25),
  • Competent - P < 10 or C < 100 (the number of publications less than 10 or the number of citations less than 100),
  • Experienced - P < 25 or C < 625 (the number of publications less than 25 or the number of citations less than 625),
  • Master - P < 50 or C < 2500 (the number of publications less than 50 or the number of citations less than 2500),
  • Star - P ≥ 50 and C ≥ 2500 (both the number of publications greater than 50 and the number of citations greater than 2500).

The chart below illustrates experience levels of first authors in cases of publications with multiple authors.

Career Path for Aspiring Behavioral and Brain Science Researchers

If you're interested in pursuing a career in Behavioral and Brain Sciences and are considering specializing in criminal psychology, it's crucial to equip yourself with the right academic qualifications. It would be best to opt for a degree program from reputable institutions in Rhode Island that offer specialized courses in the field of criminal psychology. To map your career path effectively, you can visit this comprehensive guide on criminal psychology colleges in Rhode Island. This guide will provide you with great insights into the coursework, required eligibility criteria, admission procedure, faculty details, associated costs, and potential career opportunities post-graduation. Having the right academic foundation can significantly impact your research contributions to Behavioral and Brain Sciences, and consequently, your career progression within the field. Therefore, invest time in exploring and selecting the right academic setup that aligns with your career goals and aspirations in the domain of criminal psychology.

Top Publications

  • The WEIRDest People in the World

    Joseph Henrich;Steven J. Heine;Ara Norenzayan

    (2020)
    15127 Citations
  • The generalizability crisis.

    Tal Yarkoni

    (2020)
    663 Citations
  • Music as a coevolved system for social bonding

    Patrick E. Savage;Psyche Loui;Bronwyn Tarr;Adena Schachner

    (2021)
    463 Citations
  • Thinking through other minds: A variational approach to cognition and culture.

    Samuel P. L. Veissière;Axel Constant;Maxwell J. D. Ramstead;Karl J. Friston

    (2020)
    318 Citations
  • The i-frame and the s-frame: How focusing on individual-level solutions has led behavioral public policy astray

    (2022)
    279 Citations
  • Rationalization is rational.

    Fiery Cushman

    (2020)
    256 Citations
  • Beginning with biology: "Aspects of cognition" exist in the service of the brain's overall function as a resource-regulator.

    Jordan E. Theriault;Matt Coleman;Mallory J. Feldman;Joseph D. Fridman

    (2020)
    250 Citations
  • Rapid dissonant grunting, or, but why does music sound the way it does?

    Beau R. Sievers;Thalia Wheatley

    (2021)
    238 Citations
  • Knowledge before belief

    Jonathan Phillips;Wesley Buckwalter;Fiery Cushman;Ori Friedman

    (2021)
    194 Citations
  • The moral psychology of obligation.

    Michael Tomasello

    (2020)
    152 Citations

Related Online Degrees & Career Pathways

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Best Scientists Contributing to This Journal