Aims & Scope

The Journal of Complementary and Integrative Medicine publishes significant research focusing on evidence concerning the efficacy and safety of complementary and alternative medical (CAM) whole systems, practices, interventions and natural health products, including herbal medicines. Published works will contribute to identification of research issues and education of conventional and CAM practitioners, students, researchers as well as regulators about evidence-based CAM practices and related research issues.

In JCIM, the standards of evidence are multi-leveled and are multi-disciplinary in nature:

• Controlled clinical trials and observational studies
• Standardized case reports
• Historical or traditional aspects of CAM
• Biological and pharmacological plausibility
• Product quality, including standardization, good manufacturing and agricultural practices

Publication of standardized case report will motivate practitioners to report individual cases that may facilitate hypothesis generation and development of further research. Standardized case reports will also facilitate reporting of adverse events and drug-NHP interactions.

In addition, publications involving innovative ideas in research methodologies, new applications of traditional practices/products and integration of different medical interventions are encouraged.

Finally to facilitate information transfer to the consumer, summaries of each article will also be published in easy-to-understand and colloquial language. When feasible selected articles will be published in other languages to facilitate distribution of information to a larger international community.

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Preamble

The interest in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and whole systems of health care among the public, patients, health care practitioners, researchers, industry, and government regulators continues to grow. This growth has been accompanied by an increasing amount of research and publication of articles in the mainstream bio-medical journals as well as CAM journals. There are a number of highly specialized journals that deal with different forms of CAM practices, such as acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathic, Chinese medicine, and other ethnic herbal medicinal practices. Currently, there are eight general CAM journals: Complementary Therapies in Medicine (CTM), Complementary therapies in nursing & midwifery, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies from UK; Alternative Medicine Reviews, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine (ATHM), Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (JACM) from USA; and Complementary Medicine (CMR) from Switzerland. Of these eight, only two are electronic journals.

Moreover, the recent increase in the use of CAM has led to the development of regulatory frameworks and identification of a need to address the quality, efficacy and safety issues of CAM practices/interventions and natural health products. For these purposes, issues concerning use of appropriate standards of evidence (SOE) have become a critical factor for consideration. Moreover, there is a need to communicate “reliable evidence” to health care practitioners and consumers to make informed decisions about CAM and NHPs. The currently available CAM journals do not address these needs specifically, and those that do generally do so with limited scope and dimension. It has been suggested that conventional clinical trials may not be the only source of evidence and other resources, such as good quality case reports, observational studies and traceable traditional references, may have significant contributions to our critical analyses of complementary and alternative therapies. In addition, studies that elucidate the biological and pharmacological plausibility of the therapy as well as the quality and standardization of the products (for example, herbal medicines and other natural health products) should be considered in the context of SOE.

Recent advances in the understanding of mechanisms of action of some CAM therapies and the demonstration of the effectiveness of CAM interventions have increased CAM acceptance by conventional physicians and health care providers. This has led to the development of the concept of integrated or integrative medicine, which incorporates elements of CAM into comprehensive treatment plan alongside orthodox methods of diagnosis and treatment. At the same time public interest in whole systems of care, such as Traditional East Asian medical practices, naturopathic and chiropractic medicine, homeopathy and Native American healing has motivated physicians to incorporate some of these practices in their patient’s care or to become part of a collaborative health care approach along with other health care providers. There is good evidence of the use of this integrative approach; and the number of integrative health clinics in North America and Europe has increased considerably during the past ten years. This approach includes for example, the use of acupuncture as an adjunctive therapy in drug-based management of pain, arthritis and addiction, the use of herbal medicines and or other NHPs in the palliative care of patients with cancer and HIV infection and in improving the efficacy and/or reducing the toxicity profile of drugs. The emergence of concept of integrative health care has also called for the practice of evidence-based approach in the different interventions used by healthcare providers. Therefore, research efforts focusing on appropriate evidence for evaluating the efficacy and safety of CAM are critical to the successful growth and development of integrative medicine. Unfortunately, very few CAM journals focus on evidence-based research.

Education of medical trainees in complementary medicine has an important role in promoting integrative medicine. Currently, the majority of medical schools worldwide offer some levels of CAM information in their curricula; however, there is an urgent need to develop more effective teaching programs that will focus on both research and practical issues. An international CAM journal dedicated to evidence-based practices would also be an excellent forum for medical educators to discuss the educational needs and would also a reliable learning resource for students. Such a journal would also educate CAM practitioners/students in research methodology and in critical evaluation of scientific data.

In light of the importance of complementary and integrative medicine within the current health care system and the inadequacy of available CAM journals to address the above-mentioned issues, the creation of a readily accessible, international publication focusing on research and evidence-based evaluations of CAM and natural health products, seems highly justifiable.

General Objectives

• The JCIM is a peer-reviewed, all-electronic journal, publishing research focusing on different aspects of evidence-based approach towards complementary and alternative medical (CAM) practices/ interventions and natural health products. This mandate also covers publications about whole systems of health care, including their integration with allopathic/orthodox medicine.
• The JCIM will contribute and facilitate education and knowledge management to health care practitioners, researchers, educators, patients and the general public. The JCIM will also provide a discussion forum among stakeholders and regulators of CAM practices/interventions and natural health products.

Publication Features

• JCIM is a journal dedicated to the transformation of the CAM publishing process currently available. As a member of the Berkeley Electronic Press roster of peer-reviewed electronic journals, the JCIM breaks from the tradition of high-priced paper publications.
• The JCIM seeks to encourage the broadest possible audience for its content. Any non-subscribing reader attempting to access the full text of an article will be able to do so by completing a short guest access form.
• The JCIM will be available at very affordable subscription costs to readers around the world, via the Internet. The journal encourages authors to present data and results, utilizing the unique features of the electronic media. It operates a full Electronic Submissions Service, which allows authors to send both their initial submissions and revised versions in electronic form, with no need to provide paper copies. The journal editors can work directly from an author’s source files from any word processor.
• The JCIM takes advantages of web publishing in several ways: 1) Articles are published as soon as they are accepted rather than waiting for an issue to be completed; 2) Authors can present data which cannot be readily shown in print journals via advanced digital technologies and computer programs. For example, authors can include additional files, supplementary experimental data, databases, spreadsheets as well as video/audio clips showing experimental set-up, procedures or results etc; 3). Hypertext links to other resources and references available elsewhere on the web can be included such as, links to original articles in other languages, dictionaries and glossaries as well as discussion forums of subscribers and other related articles in the literature; 4) A standardized electronic submission form will facilitate publication of good quality standardized case reports.

Types of Publication

The JCIM offers an outstanding forum for scholarly publication and debate in the form of six different types of original peer-reviewed contributions:

• Review articles (by invitation of the Editors)
• Full-length research papers, including work by medical historians, systematic reviews and meta-analysis.
• Standardized case reports (with three designated levels of evidence: Gold, Silver, and Bronze)
• Discussion papers (regulatory frameworks, major initiatives in research and academic centres, CAM programs and services, curricula development, funding policies and opportunities)
• Short notes or communications (complete descriptions of limited investigations or major breakthroughs)
• Conference presentations (keynotes or plenary lectures) and proceedings
• Non-commercial and commercial advertising (for products with regulatory approval) may also be allowed.