Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology publishes reviews, original contributions and commentaries dealing with quantitative empirical and theoretical studies in the analysis of animal behavior at the level of the individual, group, population, community, and species. The section "Methods" considers submissions concerning statistical procedures and their problems, as well as with problems related to measurement techniques.

Special emphasis is placed on ultimate functions and evolution of ecological adaptations of behavior, in addition to mechanistic studies of proximate cause.

Among aspects of particular interest are intraspecific behavioral interactions, with special focus on social behavior including altruism, cooperation and parental care; pre- and postzygotic sexual selection;kin recognition and kin selection, group structure, social networks; interspecific behavioral interactions including competition, resource partitioning, speciation, foraging, mutualism, predator-prey interactions and parasitism; signalling, behavioral ecophysiology, information processing and neuroecology; behavioral genetics; sociogenomics, behavioral plasticity and behavioral syndromes; dispersal and orientation in space and time; and relevant evolutionary and functional theory.

The Chief Editors are Theo C. M. Bakker, Bonn, Germany (vertebrates) and James F. A. Traniello, Boston, U.S.A. (invertebrates).

Continuous Article Publishing

As of 2017, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology has changed its publication structure from paginated issues to a consecutive publishing model: Continuous Article Publishing.

This means that papers are published in a volume/issue immediately after acceptance. As a further aspect of the new system, articles are no longer paginated sequentially by issue. Therefore, every article starts with page number 1. Page numbers are not used for article citation but every article has a citation ID number, called the ArticleCitationID. The ArticleCitationID is replacing the page numbers in the citation line, which includes the journal citation title, year, volume number and ArticleCitationID now .

Example: Behav Ecol Sociobiol (2017) 71: 123

This method of citation is accepted by the Web of Science/Journal Citation Reports (ISI).

New Journal Section: Featured Student Research Papers

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology has initiated a new section dedicated to exceptional, original publications that result from graduate or undergraduate student research and carry the name of the student as the lead author.
Papers in this category will be published under the heading "Featured Student Research". Furthermore, each featured paper will be highlighted in the Springer Table of Contents Alerts that is sent to about 5,000 e-subscribers each month.
This initiative is intended to honor the highest quality student research. Distinguished papers will be recommended by Associate Editors for Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, following the standard peer review process.
Students who wish their papers to be considered for the honor should explain in the cover letter accompanying the submission the main reasons why the paper represents a significant contribution to the field, and mark the appropriate box for the Featured Student Research paper during the online submission process.

• Presents quantitative empirical and theoretical studies in the analysis of animal behavior at the level of the individual, group, population, community, and species
• Offers reviews, original contributions and commentaries
• 90% of authors who answered a survey reported that they would definitely publish or probably publish in the journal again