Tai Chi and Qigong in Medical Research: A Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis

Tai Chi and Qigong are mind-body practices deriving from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) which are used clinically as therapeutic interventions. The objective of this study was to identify patterns and research trends in reviews about Tai Chi and/or Qigong through bibliometric analysis.

Based on a search of Scopus, authors, collaborations and source journal impact were analyzed, along with citation counts and alternative metrics.

In all, 205 documents were retrieved, 72% of which concerned the practice of Tai Chi. According to the type of practices, the average citation per year was 2.2 for Qigong studies, 3.2 for Tai Chi and 5.6 for Tai Chi and Qigong reviewed together. The most productive authors were Lee, Ernst and Pittle who shared a high number of papers. The strongest institutional connection was between universities in Korea and Exeter, UK. The source journals had good ranking positions both among journals belonging to the alternative medicine category and specialized clinical journals.

The level of collaboration among universities, the increasing number of meta-analysis studies, and the prestige of the journals in which articles were published attest that Tai Chi and Qigong practices are creating new opportunities in the traditional medicine.