Purpose

The purpose of this study is to analyze research output in the naturopathy field at the global level and to examine the various trends in scientific literature available on naturopathy using bibliometric analysis.

Design/methodology/approach

The data was collected from the SciVerse Scopus database published from 2000 through 2019. The search was conducted using Medical Subject headings entry terms, i.e. “Naturopathy” OR “Naturopathic Medicine” using the “Document” search option. The search results comprised of documents that had these above search terms in their article title, abstract and keywords. The retrieved documents were then analyzed concerning different parameters like the growth of publications, authorship patterns, productive countries and institutions, highly cited papers, top prolific authors, funding agencies and document types.

Findings

The results of this study reveal that a total of 1,099 documents were published during 20-year time span. The most preferred publication type is research articles 683 (62.14%). Germany, USA, Australia, India and Canada were the most productive countries in terms of the number of scientific documents. The findings also show that the most preferred journal in the field of naturopathy is MMW Fortschritte der Medizin, with 115 documents followed by Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine with 58 documents. In contrast, the journal BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine had the highest citations per paper (17.85). For the 20-year study period, the average value for the degree of collaboration was calculated as 0.57, indicating 54% of the total publications in naturopathy were multi-authored. The value of the collaboration coefficient (CC) signifies the levels of multi-authored papers. CC was highest in the year 2019 (0.55) indicating that the publications were contributed in collaboration rather than in isolation and the number of multi-authored/mega-authored papers outnumbered the single authors in the collection of all authors in the year 2019. Bastyr University, USA was the most productive Institution. Journal articles were the most preferred form of publication.

Practical implications

This study traces various trends in the research behavior and preferences of researchers in the field of naturopathy. It thus can be of immense help to identify strong areas in naturopathy research. Further, this study will help the librarians to identify the core/preferred journals in naturopathy. 

Originality/value

This paper makes an endeavor to carry an extensive bibliometric study that provides an overview of emerging trends in naturopathy research.

中文翻译：

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Scopus 反映的 2000-2019 年全球自然疗法研究

目的

本研究的目的是在全球范围内分析自然疗法领域的研究成果，并使用文献计量分析检查有关自然疗法的科学文献中的各种趋势。

设计/方法/方法

数据收集自 2000 年至 2019 年发布的 SciVerse Scopus 数据库。使用医学主题标题条目术语进行搜索，即“自然疗法”或“自然疗法医学”，使用“文档”搜索选项。搜索结果由在文章标题、摘要和关键字中包含上述搜索词的文档组成。然后对检索到的文件进行分析，涉及不同的参数，如出版物的增长、作者模式、多产的国家和机构、高被引论文、高产作者、资助机构和文件类型。

发现

这项研究的结果表明，在 20 年的时间跨度内，共发表了 1,099 篇文献。最受欢迎的出版物类型是研究文章 683 (62.14%)。德国、美国、澳大利亚、印度和加拿大是科学文献数量最多的国家。调查结果还显示，自然疗法领域最受欢迎的期刊是MMW Fortschritte der Medizin，有 115 篇文献，其次是Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine，有 58 篇文献。相比之下，BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 杂志每篇论文的引用次数最高（17.85）。在 20 年的研究期间，合作程度的平均值计算为 0.57，表明 54% 的自然疗法出版物是多作者的。协作系数（CC）的值表示多作者论文的水平。CC 在 2019 年最高（0.55），表明这些出版物是通过合作而非孤立贡献的，并且在 2019 年的所有作者集合中，多作者/超级作者的论文数量超过了单个作者。 Bastyr美国大学是生产力最高的机构。期刊文章是最受欢迎的出版形式。

实际影响

本研究追踪了自然疗法领域研究人员的研究行为和偏好的各种趋势。因此，它可以极大地帮助确定自然疗法研究中的重点领域。此外，这项研究将帮助图书馆员确定自然疗法领域的核心/首选期刊。 

原创性/价值

本文致力于进行广泛的文献计量研究，概述自然疗法研究的新兴趋势。