Online databases and journals of Traditional Medicine and Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Korea

IntroductionHow to access Korean publications of Traditional Medicine (TM) and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is largely unknown in the west. This article introduces the databases and journals that are available online in Korea.MethodsThe databases were grouped according to their research scope, and each database was then searched for all journals on TM. The journals were classified as sub-societies’ journals under the Society of Korean Medicine (SKOM), which is the main academic Society of Korean Medicine, as journals by TKM universities/colleges or as journals by other research sources. The subject of these journals are categorized according to the World Health Organization (WHO) International Standard Terminologies on TM in the Western Pacific Region as follows: general, basic theories, diagnostics, disease, therapeutics, acupuncture and moxibustion, medicinal treatment and classical literature.ResultsThere are 13 databases and 44 journals about TM in Korea. Of the 44 journals, 32 belong to sub-societies under the SKOM. Only three of these Korean journals are indexed in the major international biomedical databases such as MEDLINE, SCOPUS and EMBASE. Most journals are published in Korean; although only 7 of the journals are available in English, all journals have English abstracts. Because these journals are not extensively accessible, the amount of information that is available in English may be insufficient.ConclusionsOur article provides researchers with the opportunity to access studies originally published in Korean.