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Topic · Complementary and alternative medicine

Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies

Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies is a research topic within Complementary and alternative medicine. Science Explorer counts 43k research works in it since 1950. 9.6% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the integration of traditional medicine, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda, with modern scientific approaches. It covers topics such as syndrome differentiation, herbal formulae, tongue diagnosis, constitutional typology, genomic analysis, and precision medicine. The focus is on understanding the principles and applications of traditional medicine in the context of contemporary healthcare.

  • Traditional Chinese Medicine
  • Ayurveda
  • Syndrome Differentiation
  • Herbal Formulae
  • Integrative Medicine
  • Tongue Diagnosis
  • Constitutional Typology
  • Genomic Analysis
  • Precision Medicine
  • Health Maintenance
Research works
43k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
4.1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.6%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+50%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
58% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies

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

Which countries lead Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies research?

By volume, China and India publish the most (3.2k and 1.1k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 3.2k works
  2. 2 India 1.1k works
  3. 3 United States 443 works
  4. 4 South Korea 293 works
  5. 5 Japan 122 works
  6. 6 Indonesia 105 works
  7. 7 Taiwan 77 works
  8. 8 United Kingdom 71 works
  9. 9 Türkiye 59 works
  10. 10 Iran 43 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: 57.9%India: 20.1%United States: 8.1%South Korea: 5.3%6 others listed: 8.7%58%largest
China3,185 · 57.9%India1,104 · 20.1%United States443 · 8.1%South Korea293 · 5.3%6 others listed477 · 8.7%

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

Which institutions lead Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies research?

By volume in 2022-now, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine publishes the most Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies research, followed by Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College and Align Technology (United States).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Beijing University of Chinese MedicineChina 143 works
  2. 2 Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical CollegeChina 114 works
  3. 3 Align Technology (United States)United States 113 works
  4. 4 Shaanxi University of Chinese MedicineChina 108 works
  5. 5 Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese MedicineChina 91 works
  6. 6 Guangzhou University of Chinese MedicineChina 70 works
  7. 7 National Institute of AyurvedaIndia 62 works
  8. 8 Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese MedicineChina 62 works
  9. 9 Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese MedicineChina 62 works
  10. 10 Nanjing University of Chinese MedicineChina 57 works

Who are the leading researchers in Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies include David Moher, Douglas G. Altman and Zhong Lin Wang.

  1. 1 David Moher Canada 898k citations
  2. 2 Douglas G. Altman United Kingdom 862k citations
  3. 3 Zhong Lin Wang United States 491k citations
  4. 4 Rob Knight United States 468k citations
  5. 5 Jun Wang China 340k citations
  6. 6 Gordon Henry Guyatt Canada 315k citations
  7. 7 Luigi Ferrucci United States 281k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies?

The most cited paper in Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies is "TCMSP: a database of systems pharmacology for drug discovery from herbal medicines" (Jinlong Ru, Peng Li, Jinan Wang et al., 2014), with 5,188 citations. Next come "Why Patients Use Alternative Medicine" (2,881) and "Problems of Spectrum and Bias in Evaluating the Efficacy of Diagnostic Tests" (1,753).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 TCMSP: a database of systems pharmacology for drug discovery from herbal medicines Jinlong Ru, Peng Li, Jinan Wang et al. · Journal of Cheminformatics Open access 15 Apr 2014 5,188
2 Why Patients Use Alternative Medicine John A. Astin · JAMA 20 May 1998 2,881
3 Problems of Spectrum and Bias in Evaluating the Efficacy of Diagnostic Tests David F. Ransohoff, Alvan R. Feinstein · New England Journal of Medicine 26 Oct 1978 1,753
4 Machine learning for medical diagnosis: history, state of the art and perspective Igor Kononenko · Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Aug 2001 1,691
5 Using MetaboAnalyst 3.0 for Comprehensive Metabolomics Data Analysis Jianguo Xia, David Scott Wishart · Current Protocols in Bioinformatics Sep 2016 1,597
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies research done?

The largest centres of Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Guangzhou (China) and Xianyang (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Xianyang, Amloh and Malappuram.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 611 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 212 works
  3. 3 GuangzhouChina 176 works
  4. 4 XianyangChina 143 works
  5. 5 NanjingChina 130 works
  6. 6 ChengduChina 126 works
  7. 7 San JoseUnited States 114 works
  8. 8 SeoulSouth Korea 108 works
  9. 9 HangzhouChina 104 works
  10. 10 TianjinChina 102 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. XianyangCN · 143.5 works107×
  2. AmlohIN · 50.0 works94×
  3. MalappuramIN · 49.2 works57×
  4. San JoseUS · 113.9 works56×
  5. NandedIN · 53.5 works52×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies than the world average.

See Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies on the map

Where is the best place to study Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies?

Among universities, judged by research, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong and Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 15.65%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Tianjin University o…Shanghai University …Chinese University o…Chinese Academy of M…
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.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese MedicineChina 61.216.2%63.4×91 +25.0%
2Chinese University of Hong KongChina 61.212.3%3.5×13 +13.7%
3Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese MedicineChina 60.520.8%79.0×62 +27.1%
4Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical CollegeChina 59.811.5%20.5×114 +3.7%
5Beijing University of Chinese MedicineChina 59.311.1%114.1×143 +4.4%
6Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese MedicineChina 56.615.8%46.5×62 +40.0%
7Kyung Hee UniversitySouth Korea 55.85.5%18.8×41 +4.8%
8China Pharmaceutical UniversityChina 53.320.3%16.2×19 +151.8%
9Tsinghua UniversityChina 52.925.3%1.7×20 +65.2%
10Zhejiang Chinese Medical UniversityChina 51.317.7%26.8×35 +50.9%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies, country by country

Is Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 50% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2011. The fastest-growing topics are Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies.

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 Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.026% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%0.15%Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies0.028% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies 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%Traditional Chinese Medicine Studies10.3% 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.

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