Twenty years of clinical trials on aromatherapy research: a bibliometric analysis

芳香療法臨床試驗20年：書目計量分析

辜美安(Malcolm Koo)

《實證自然醫學》 2卷1期 (2016/10) Pp. 27-58

摘要

Bibliometric analysis is a methodology for systematic investigation of publication patterns based on citation data of academic literature. Recently, there is a growing interest in using bibliometric analysis to understand the scholarly output in various health-related research such as complementary medicine. Nevertheless, no studies have investigated the profile of published research in clinical trials of aromatherapy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to conduct a citation analysis of articles on aromatherapy trials. The Science Citation Index-Expanded database was used to identify articles on aromatherapy trials using the search term ＂aromatherapy and trial＂ that published between 1995 to 2014. Results show that 77 articles were identified and analyzed. There was a steady but slow increase in the number of articles from 1998 to 2011, followed by a sharp increase in 2012 and reached 18 articles in 2014 alone. A total of 17 countries or regions contributed to the articles with the United Kingdom contributed the most published articles (16 articles). Of the 44 journals that had published aromatherapy trials, the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine published the greatest number of articles (11 articles). Regarding the type of essential oil used, Lavandula angustifolia was a popular choice, regardless of the mode of administration. Co-occurrence analysis of keywords in the abstract of the articles revealed three clusters of research topics. Our findings can provide readers a systematic overview of the productivity and visibility of research work in aromatherapy trials.

關鍵字

aromatherapy ； complementary medicine ； clinical trials ； bibliometric analysis ； citation analysis ； scientometrics

並列摘要

書目計量法是一種針對文獻引用型態的系統性研究分析法，近年間，以利用書目計量法了解健康相關領域學術產出的研究相繼湧現，當中亦不乏探討輔助療法的研究，然而，至今仍缺乏針對芳香療法臨床試驗的分析，故此，本研究採用引文分析法，對芳香療法臨床試驗的文獻進行評估。研究以芳香療法和臨床試驗的英文關鍵詞於「科學引文索引擴充版」資料庫進行檢索，文獻出版年份限制於1995 至2014 的20 年間。結果發現77 篇芳香療法臨床試驗的文獻，其出版數目於1998 年至2011 年期間緩緩上升，2012 年起開始快速上升，並於2014 年的一年間多達18 篇。研究的國家地區計有17 個，其中以英國佔16 篇，為數最多。至於出版期刊方面，文獻共於44 本期刊中刊登，當中以美國的「另類及輔助療法期刊」佔11 篇最多。不論精油的介入方法，狹葉薰衣草精油皆是普遍探討的精油。此外，文獻的摘要以「共現網絡分析」進行探勘，演算結果獲得三個研究主題的集群。本研究可提供讀者對芳香療法臨床試驗產出和能見度的系統性概觀。

並列關鍵字

芳香療法 ； 輔助療法 ； 臨床試驗 ； 書目計量法 ； 引文分析 ； 文獻計量法