Abstract
Background This article aims to analyze the research status of integrative complementary medicine (ICM) and features of highly cited papers in the field to provide reference of the future development of ICM. Methods Publications in the field of ICM from 2009 to 2018 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. The top 20 countries/territories, institutions, journals, keywords of highly cited and noncited papers, and characteristics of essential science indicator (ESI) papers, as well as open access (OA) and non-OA papers, were analyzed. Results Mainland China had the largest number of ICM publications. The top 20 journals published a total of 31667 papers in 2009–2018, which represented 92.9% of all publications. Keywords of highly cited and noncited papers point to different research directions. 48 ESI highly cited/hot papers were identified, most of which are related to phytochemistry. Furthermore, the average citation rate (percentage of publications that have been cited one or more times) of OA papers was lower than that of total papers and non-OA papers. Conclusions China leads in number of publications; however, publication quality in ICM field requires improvement. A few journals accounted for more than half of number of publications and citations, which are important for the development of ICM. Many of the keywords in ICM noncited publications pointed towards broad meaning that poorly reflect the exact research content. Most highly cited ICM studies focused on the identification and evaluation of plant active components. OA may not be an effective approach to increase paper citations in the field of ICM.
Highlights
In 2015, the greatest news for scientists in the field of natural medicines, and Chinese scientists, was that Professor Youyou Tu won the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, which is the first Nobel Prize in natural sciences awarded to a scientist based on the Chinese mainland
Using the search strategy: Web of Science (WoS) category, Integrative and Complementary Medicine, publication year 2009–2018, and publication type “article” and “review,” publications in the field of integrative complementary medicine (ICM) were retrieved from the WoS Core Collection; data were collected in November 2019. en, the data set is imported into the InCites database for analysis
Physicians who practice complementary and alternative medicine must recognize the need to support their methods with scientific evidence relating to their effectiveness [29]. e number of ICM publications has experienced a period of rapid growth
Summary
In 2015, the greatest news for scientists in the field of natural medicines, and Chinese scientists, was that Professor Youyou Tu won the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, which is the first Nobel Prize in natural sciences awarded to a scientist based on the Chinese mainland. Campbell and Satoshi O mura, for her unprecedented contribution to medicine that has saved millions of lives worldwide. As declared in her Nobel Lecture on December 7, 2015, at Aula Medica, Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, the discovery of artemisinin (Qinghaosu in Chinese) is regarded as a gift from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to the world. TCM is generally considered an important component of integrative and complementary medicine; it is no surprise that scientists from western countries have contributed considerably to TCM publications [3]. ICM has been used for treatment of cardiovascular diseases, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine cancer, and many other chronic diseases [4–6]. Scientific research output in the ICM field is increasing worldwide
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