Publication activity in complementary and alternative medicine revisited, 1966-2016

• In Event: Science and Technology Studies on Transnational Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)

Abstract

In this paper we analyse how research on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has developed as a global research domain. We map this development with bibliometric methods. To a large extent this is a follow up to our study published in 2009, where we identified a relatively rapid increase in publication of CAM articles in the late 1990s. We also argued that the expansion of CAM research not only was due to the establishment of specialized CAM journals, but that CAM research had entered into conventional medical forums. But what has happened after that? Has CAM research continued to expand – and what has happened to the content of the research? Empirically this paper is based on the Pubmed database, 1966-2016. CAM is defined as Complementary Therapies according to Medical Subject Headings/major topic. Our results indicate that the number of CAM publications has stabilized at about 4-5000 per year, but that their/its share of all articles in the database has dropped to a small extent. The largest subfields are still Acupuncture, Mind Body Therapies, Musculoskeletal Manipulations, and Spiritual therapies, and the research has become even more clinically oriented over the years, although very few clinical trials are classified according to the clinical trial phase. The most frequent journals in the domain have a clear focus on CAM, and we note a drop in the share of articles published in core clinical journals. These findings signal that CAM is gradually establishing itself as a separate domain rather than breaking into the arena of biomedical research.

Authors

• Jenny-Ann Brodin Danell, Umeå university, Department of Sociology

• Pia Vuolanto, University of Tampere Research Centre for Knowledge, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies

• Rickard Danell, Department of Sociology, Umeå University