PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Ethol.
Sec. Social Behavior and Communication
Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fetho.2025.1686756
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovative Insights into Mammalian Facial SignalsView all articles
Navigating the Nuances of Studying Animal Facial Behaviors with Facial Action Coding Systems (FACS)
Provisionally accepted
- Lyon College, Batesville, United States
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ABSTRACT: Facial Action Coding Systems (FACS) are some of the most systematic and standardized methods for studying the physical aspects of animal facial behavior. Although FACS manuals provide some guidance on how to implement their coding system, they often lack detailed recommendations for data collection protocols, which impacts the types of data that can be coded. Furthermore, there are various methods for data coding that are not always discussed in FACS. In this perspective piece, I aim to review some considerations related to the data collection and coding process and to offer best practice recommendations, as well as alternatives. While this list of considerations and recommendations is not comprehensive, I hope it encourages more discussions and the sharing of additional guidelines and protocols for FACS. By doing this, we can enhance the systematic approach and scientific rigor of FACS further.
Keywords: Facial behavior, Facial Action Coding Systems, FACS, Action units, Face coding
Received: 22 Aug 2025; Accepted: 12 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Florkiewicz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Brittany Nicole Florkiewicz, Lyon College, Batesville, United States
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