An altmetric analysis of the research literature about traditional, complementary, and integrative medicine

IF 1.7 Q2 Medicine

Advances in integrative medicine Pub Date : 2025-05-23 DOI:10.1016/j.aimed.2025.100506

Jeremy Y. Ng , Alep Judge , Holger Cramer

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

The use of traditional, complementary, and integrative medicine (TCIM) is known to be popular worldwide; there have been over 200,000 research articles published on this topic as of 2024. For decades, traditional citation-based metrics have been the assumed norm when assessing the impact of research, but in the digital age, alternative metrics (altmetrics) have also become a valuable proxy. By analyzing trends associated with the altmetrics of scholarly outputs relating to TCIM, patterns of social engagement were identified to obtain a better understanding of the factors that drive social impact in this field online.

Methods

This study was conducted using Altmetric.com, whereby this database was searched by the subject area “Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine”. The subsequent data obtained was further analyzed to discern social trends within TCIM scholarly outputs at the article level.

Results

62,278 research outputs, from 1925 to 2024, with +497,000 online mentions were analyzed. Outputs from the Journal of Natural Products were mentioned the most frequently online (n = 5314, 10.56 %). The highest average Altmetric attention scores were associated with news outputs (M = 203.67), and outputs published under a bronze OA type (M = 17.54). The most mentions were contributed by X (n = 350,630, 70.41 %), Facebook (n = 57,540, 11.55 %), and news outlets (n = 39,941, 8.02 %).

Conclusions

Using the features found in this study to be linked with higher online attention, and sharing research through well-used online platforms, may help make TCIM research more visible to the public and more relevant to policy discussions.

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对传统医学、补充医学和综合医学研究文献的替代分析

传统、补充和综合医学（TCIM）的使用在全世界都很流行；截至2024年，已经有超过20万篇关于这一主题的研究论文发表。几十年来，传统的基于引用的指标一直是评估研究影响的假设标准，但在数字时代，替代指标（altmetrics）也已成为一种有价值的替代指标。通过分析与TCIM相关的学术产出替代指标相关的趋势，确定了社会参与模式，以便更好地了解在线推动该领域社会影响的因素。方法本研究使用Altmetric.com进行，该数据库按主题领域“传统、补充和综合医学”进行检索。随后获得的数据被进一步分析，以在文章水平上辨别TCIM学术产出的社会趋势。结果共收录1925 - 2024年62278篇论文，其中网络提及次数497000次。《自然产物杂志》（Journal of Natural Products）的产出在网上被提及的频率最高（n = 5314,10.56 %）。最高的Altmetric平均注意力得分与新闻产出（M = 203.67）和青铜OA类型下发表的产出（M = 17.54）相关。提到大多数是由X (70.41 n = 350630年  %),Facebook (11.55 n = 57540年  %),和新闻媒体(8.02 n = 39941年  %)。利用本研究中发现的特征与更高的在线关注相关联，并通过使用良好的在线平台分享研究，可能有助于使TCIM研究更容易被公众看到，并与政策讨论更相关。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Advances in integrative medicine INTEGRATIVE & COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE-

CiteScore

3.20

自引率

11.80%

发文量

审稿时长

15 weeks

期刊介绍： Advances in Integrative Medicine (AIMED) is an international peer-reviewed, evidence-based research and review journal that is multi-disciplinary within the fields of Integrative and Complementary Medicine. The journal focuses on rigorous quantitative and qualitative research including systematic reviews, clinical trials and surveys, whilst also welcoming medical hypotheses and clinically-relevant articles and case studies disclosing practical learning tools for the consulting practitioner. By promoting research and practice excellence in the field, and cross collaboration between relevant practitioner groups and associations, the journal aims to advance the practice of IM, identify areas for future research, and improve patient health outcomes. International networking is encouraged through clinical innovation, the establishment of best practice and by providing opportunities for cooperation between organisations and communities.