Bibliometric analysis of acupuncture-related research production Yu-Tien Tzeng1, Chia-Ku Lin2, Wen-Ta Chiu3 and Yuh-Shan Ho4 1Department of Internal Medicine, Taipei Medical University - Wan-Fang Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan 2School of Public Health, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan 3Department of Neurosurgery, Taipei Medical University - Wan-Fang Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan 4Bibliometric Centre, Taipei Medical University - Wan-Fang Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan Introduction Acupuncture originated in China over five thousand years ago. It is based on the belief that health is determined by a balanced flow of chi, the vital life energy present in all living organisms. The objective of the study was to perform a bibliometric analysis of all acupuncture-related publications in the Science Citation Index (SCI). Methods Documents used in this study were based on the databases of the SCI which was accessed from the ISI Web of Science, Philadelphia, PA, USA. A keyword search, using the following terms, was performed to identify acupuncture-related studies published between 1995 and 2004: “acupuncture”. Table 2. Major characteristics of the research Results Figure 1. Cumulative number of articles by year Table 1. Distribution of regions P: No. of articles AU: No. of authors PG: Total pages NR: Cited reference count SP: single country publications CP: international collaborative publications Table 3. Publication activity of top ten countries Conclusions Twenty-six European countries produced 39% of the total output followed by nine America countries. English was the dominant language, comprising 91% of articles. A logarithmic and exponential relation between yearly cumulative number of publications and the year were obtained for the 2 periods from 1991 to 1994 and 1994 to 2004. The exponential relation indicates that the yearly articles sustain constantly growth rate on publications after 1994. The yearly productive decreased from 1991 to 1996. The 3 most productive corresponding institutes were the University of Exeter at the UK, Kyung Hee University at South Korea, and Shanghai Medical University at China. The most productive corresponding country was US. The US was the most frequent partner accounting for comprising 21% of the international collaborative publications followed by the Japan with 6.9%, and Germany with 6.4%.