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Subfield · Health Professions

Complementary and Manual Therapy research

Complementary and Manual Therapy is a subfield of Health Professions. Science Explorer counts 41k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: therapeutic practice not currently considered an integral part of conventional allopathic medical practice.

Research works
41k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
4.2k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
2
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+28%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
20% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Complementary and Manual Therapy

This ranks research output and citation impact. It says nothing about the quality of diagnosis, treatment or care.

Which countries lead Complementary and Manual Therapy research?

On research quality in 2022-now, China, the United States and Germany rank highest in Complementary and Manual Therapy. By volume, China and the United States publish the most (1.2k and 999 works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 China #2 all time 1.48× excellence · 1.15× journals · 100% breadth 17.9% top 10% · 1k works
  2. 2 United States #1 all time 1.09× excellence · 1.57× journals · 100% breadth 12.1% top 10% · 840 works
  3. 3 Germany #3 all time 1.22× excellence · 1.39× journals · 100% breadth 10.5% top 10% · 216 works
  4. 4 Italy #9 all time 1.84× excellence · 0.67× journals · 100% breadth 21.7% top 10% · 348 works
  5. 5 Spain #6 all time 1.37× excellence · 1.00× journals · 100% breadth 14.1% top 10% · 224 works
  6. 6 United Kingdom #4 all time 0.86× excellence · 1.44× journals · 100% breadth 9.6% top 10% · 216 works
  7. 7 South Korea #13 all time 0.95× excellence · 0.90× journals · 100% breadth 10.4% top 10% · 240 works
  8. 8 Japan #15 all time 0.63× excellence · 0.90× journals · 100% breadth 5.5% top 10% · 387 works
  9. 9 Brazil #14 all time 0.72× excellence · 0.32× journals · 100% breadth 5.0% top 10% · 619 works
  10. 10 India #17 all time 0.36× excellence · 0.43× journals · 100% breadth 3.3% top 10% · 836 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 13 countries ranked in Complementary and Manual Therapy. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Complementary and Manual Therapy

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 1.2k works
  2. 2 United States 999 works
  3. 3 India 991 works
  4. 4 Brazil 700 works
  5. 5 Türkiye 538 works
  6. 6 Japan 454 works
  7. 7 Italy 412 works
  8. 8 Russia 314 works
  9. 9 South Korea 275 works
  10. 10 Germany 273 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 20.0%United States: 16.1%India: 16.0%Brazil: 11.3%6 others listed: 36.6%20%largest
China1,237 · 20.0%United States999 · 16.1%India991 · 16.0%Brazil700 · 11.3%6 others listed2,265 · 36.6%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Complementary and Manual Therapy research?

Sichuan University (China) ranks first in Complementary and Manual Therapy on research quality in 2022-now, followed by .

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Sichuan University China · Chengdu · #2 all time 15.0% top 10% · 86 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 1 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Complementary and Manual Therapy.

Top 100 Complementary and Manual Therapy institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Sichuan UniversityChina 97 works
  2. 2 Stomatology HospitalChina 65 works
  3. 3 Universidade de São PauloBrazil 60 works
  4. 4 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 55 works
  5. 5 Saveetha UniversityIndia 45 works
  6. 6 Yonsei UniversitySouth Korea 41 works
  7. 7 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 39 works
  8. 8 Cairo UniversityEgypt 39 works
  9. 9 Harvard UniversityUnited States 32 works
  10. 10 Seoul National UniversitySouth Korea 31 works

Who are the leading researchers in Complementary and Manual Therapy?

Counting only their work in Complementary and Manual Therapy, Daniele Manfredini, Frank Lobbezoo and Gunnar E. Carlsson have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Daniele Manfredini Italy · #137,799 worldwide overall 51.9 of 116 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Frank Lobbezoo Netherlands · #358,891 worldwide overall 45.3 of 146 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Gunnar E. Carlsson Sweden · #53,171 worldwide overall 23.0 of 58 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Richard K. Ohrbach United States · #108,655 worldwide overall 24.3 of 63 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Gilles J Lavigne Canada · #90,170 worldwide overall 20.0 of 42 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Yuri Lvov United States · #26,134 worldwide overall 14.7 of 22 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 James A. McNamara United States · #108,458 worldwide overall 15.4 of 51 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 William D. Maixner United States · #92,402 worldwide overall 12.8 of 27 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Ambra Michelotti Italy · #226,830 worldwide overall 17.0 of 55 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Luca Guarda‐Nardini Italy · #437,787 worldwide overall 16.7 of 43 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Complementary and Manual Therapy alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 193,905 ranked researchers with a paper here. Each paper counts once, so many strong papers outrank one famous one, and a long record of ordinary papers does not climb. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Complementary and Manual Therapy researchers

What are the most cited papers in Complementary and Manual Therapy?

The most cited paper in Complementary and Manual Therapy is "Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (DC/TMD) for Clinical and Research Applications: Recommendations of the International RDC/TMD Consortium Network* and Orofacial Pain Special Interest Group†" (ERIC L. SCHIFFMAN et al., 2014), with 4,547 citations. Next come "Research diagnostic criteria for temporomandibular disorders: review, criteria, examinations and specifications, critique." (3,828) and "Functional bowel disorders and functional abdominal pain" (2,395).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (DC/TMD) for Clinical and Research Applications: Recommendations of the International RDC/TMD Consortium Network* and Orofacial Pain Special Interest Group† ERIC L. SCHIFFMAN et al. · Journal of Oral & Facial Pain and Headache Open access 2014 4,547
2 Research diagnostic criteria for temporomandibular disorders: review, criteria, examinations and specifications, critique. Samuel F. Dworkin, Linda LeResche · PubMed 1992 3,828
3 Functional bowel disorders and functional abdominal pain Wade Thompson, George F. Longstreth, Douglas A. Drossman et al. · Gut Open access Sep 1999 2,395
4 A review on the adsorption of heavy metals by clay minerals, with special focus on the past decade Mohammad Kashif Uddin · Chemical Engineering Journal 12 Sep 2016 2,112
5 Initial Psychometric Assessment of a Functional Oral Intake Scale for Dysphagia in Stroke Patients Michael A. Crary, Giselle D. Carnaby Mann, Michael E. Groher · Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Aug 2005 1,861
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Complementary and Manual Therapy research done?

The largest centres of Complementary and Manual Therapy research in 2022-now are São Paulo (Brazil), Beijing (China), Seoul (South Korea) and Tokyo (Japan). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Damascus.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 São PauloBrazil 161 works
  2. 2 BeijingChina 156 works
  3. 3 SeoulSouth Korea 138 works
  4. 4 TokyoJapan 133 works
  5. 5 MoscowRussia 131 works
  6. 6 IstanbulTürkiye 123 works
  7. 7 ShanghaiChina 122 works
  8. 8 ChennaiIndia 118 works
  9. 9 Xi'anChina 109 works
  10. 10 ChengduChina 94 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. DamascusSY · 23.2 works16×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Complementary and Manual Therapy than the world average.

See Complementary and Manual Therapy on the map

Complementary and Manual Therapy research by country

The best places for Complementary and Manual Therapy research inside each country, with that country's researchers and world standing.

Where is the best place to study Complementary and Manual Therapy?

Among universities, judged by research, Sichuan University, Harvard University and University of Amsterdam score highest, combining standing in the field's ranking, excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 18.85%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of Amster…University of MichiganSichuan UniversityHarvard University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Standingthis field's institution ranking, three quarters all time and a quarter 2022-now
50%
Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
20%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
5%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
15%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
5%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
5%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreRank in field (all time)Top 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Sichuan UniversityChina 82.2#1 (#2)15.1%4.8×96 +124.1%
2Harvard UniversityUnited States 70.2- (#1)12.4%1.1×32 +35.8%
3University of AmsterdamNetherlands 50.6- (#4)22.9%3.9×21 -0.4%
4University of MichiganUnited States 46.7- (#3)21.3%1.1×16 -14.2%
5Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 44.0- (#6)13.6%2.1×55 +27.6%
6University of WashingtonUnited States 41.3- (#5)21.2%1.0×10 +27.7%
7Peking UniversityChina 36.6- (#7)10.6%1.6×29 +13.2%
8Yonsei UniversitySouth Korea 35.0- (#10)14.1%5.0×41 +1.8%
9Karolinska InstitutetSweden 34.7- (#8)18.8%2.8×14 -0.0%
10University of SienaItaly 33.8-38.5%9.9×18 +66.0%

Universities only. The score blends standing (50%), excellence (20%), size (15%), specialisation (5%), growth (5%), international reach (5%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise. Standing is the score in this field's institution ranking, three quarters over all time and a quarter 2022-now; excellence averages the two windows too. Four years alone undercount fields such as AI, where many conference and arXiv papers from 2022 on carry no affiliation in the data.

Every institution in Complementary and Manual Therapy, country by country

Is Complementary and Manual Therapy research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 28% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Temporomandibular Joint Disorders and Therapeutic Uses of Natural Elements.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Complementary and Manual Therapy as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.041% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Complementary and Manual Therapy0.048% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Complementary and Manual Therapy over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Complementary and Manual Therapy10.1% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

What does Complementary and Manual Therapy include?

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Who leads Complementary and Manual Therapy, on Science Explorer

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