Global impact and contribution of traditional Chinese medicine: a bibliometric analysis based on 98,746 studies

To analyze the current publication status of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in international journals and to evaluate its global influence and scholarly contributions within the field.

A bibliometric approach was employed using VOSviewer 1. 6. 17, CiteSpace 5. 8. R2, and the R Studio Bibliometrix package to conduct a visualized analysis of publications related to TCM research from the PubMed and Web of Science databases from their inception to March 19, 2025. The analysis included the number of papers, citation times, publication time, research institutions, authors, and regional distribution. Additionally, impact factor (IF) of the journal was calculated, and subgroup analyses were conducted based on clinical research and disease categories.

From the inception of the databases until March 19, 2025, a total of 98,746 research articles on TCM have been published, of which 9,575 are clinical research papers, with 7,083 (73.97%) reporting positive outcomes. Over the past two decades, the annual publication volume in TCM research has increased steadily. The research encompasses 217 countries and regions, involving 279,128 authors and 37,662 participating institutions, including internationally renowned academic entities such as Harvard Medical School. A total of 4,598 high-impact scholarly articles (journal IF >10) have been published in the field, of which 172 were clinical studies. Among the TCM clinical research papers that reported positive results, 35 papers were published in authoritative journals with an IF over 40. TCM research has the largest number of publications in the field of oncology, reaching 13,001 articles.

The clinical application value of TCM has gained widespread recognition within the international academic community. Its scientific validity and clinical efficacy have been empirically validated by high-quality research published in authoritative journals. This study provides a significant scholarly foundation for the globalization and scientific evaluation of TCM.