A bibliometric study of English-language materials on acupuncture

Author(s): TSUTANI, K.

Abstract: Acupuncture is widely practised in Euro-American English speaking countries. To trace its development in these countries, we studied the scope and evolution of English-language publications in the field of acupuncture. We did this by searching a number of medical and non-medical computerized and print databases, looking at the number of texts published in English and the number of periodical citations found. We compare the number of texts that we found with estimated numbers of texts in Asian-source languages, such as Chinese and Japanese, and trace the chronological development of the English-language texts. We also compare the numbers of English-language periodical citations to non-English citations in the same databases, and discuss the availability of Asian acupuncture periodical journals.Our findings lead us to conclude that the assimilation of acupuncture literature from east Asian sources is still in its infancy, and that the field as a whole is in relatively early stages of development. This may be important in interpreting efforts to evaluate the status of acupuncture in English-speaking Euro-American countries.

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