OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine is an international peer-reviewed Open Access journal published quarterly online by LIDSEN Publishing Inc. It covers all evidence-based scientific studies on integrative, alternative and complementary approaches to improving health and wellness.

Topics contain but are not limited to:

  • Acupuncture
  • Acupressure
  • Acupotomy
  • Bioelectromagnetics applications
  • Pharmacological and biological treatments including their efficacy and safety
  • Diet, nutrition and lifestyle changes
  • Herbal medicine
  • Homeopathy
  • Manual healing methods (e.g., massage, physical therapy)
  • Kinesiology
  • Mind/body interventions
  • Preventive medicine
  • Research in integrative medicine
  • Education in integrative medicine
  • Related policies

The journal publishes a variety of article types: Original Research, Review, Communication, Opinion, Comment, Conference Report, Technical Note, Book Review, etc.

There is no restriction on paper length, provided that the text is concise and comprehensive. Authors should present their results in as much detail as possible, as reviewers are encouraged to emphasize scientific rigor and reproducibility.

Publication Speed (median values for papers published in 2023): Submission to First Decision: 5.9 weeks; Submission to Acceptance: 14.7 weeks; Acceptance to Publication: 8 days (1-2 days of FREE language polishing included)

Before the Submission

  1. Please ensure the manuscript aligns with the Aims and Scope. If the manuscript is prepared for a specific special issue within the journal, please ensure that you have read the description and submission information provided for that particular special issue.
  2. Please refer to the Article type for information on the types of manuscripts accepted for submission.
  3. If artificial intelligence or other AI-assisted tools were utilized during the manuscript writing process, it is necessary to include a statement in the cover letter and the declaration section of the article to specify the service or tool used and the purpose it served. The authors should confirm that they have reviewed and edited those parts produced by an AI or AI-assisted tool to ensure its accuracy or integrity and acknowledge full responsibility for the content of the manuscript.
  4. The research conducted in the manuscript should adhere to the Research and Publication Ethics Guidelines. It is necessary to include an individual section called "Ethics Statement" in the manuscript, demonstrating that the research was approved by an appropriate ethics committee or an equivalent institution, and conducted in an ethical manner.
  5. If third-party materials are utilized in the manuscript, it is important to obtain written permission from the copyright owner. Please ensure that you have obtained the necessary permission and be prepared to provide the corresponding document during the submission process.
  6. In order to submit a manuscript, submitted author need to register in our editorial system first.
  7. Full names are necessary;
  8. Institutional email addresses are preferred where possible (the email addresses will be used when check the status of a manuscript in our editorial system);
  9. Research interests should be specified by keywords.

Manuscript Preparation

We recommend using our Microsoft Word and LaTeX templates for your manuscript preparation. When preparing manuscripts, please refer to Research Publication: International Standards for Authors and our Research and Publication Ethics Guidelines.

Materials to be Submitted

A cover letter, the manuscript (including the title page, figures, tables, and boxes inserted within the main text), and any supplementary or supporting materials (such as additional figures and tables, datasheets, videos, etc.) if applicable, are required for submission. Please note that manuscripts may only be submitted by one of the authors of the manuscript and not by third parties.

  1. In the cover letter, authors should briefly introduce the theme of the manuscript and highlight the novelty and contribution of the study;
  2. Authors are invited to provide the names of three well-qualified reviewers. Please do not suggest reviewers who are colleagues, co-authored, or collaborated with you during the last three years. Editors will not invite reviewers who have potential competing interests with the authors. In addition, the editor will decide whether or not to invite the suggested reviewers.
  3. If for some technical reason online submission is not successful, the author can submit the manuscript to icm@lidsen.com.

General Style and Format

  1. Please ensure that the content of your manuscript adheres to the formatting requirements of ACS style.
  2. Manuscripts submitted to OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine must be prepared in English. An English translation should be provided if a cited reference was published in another language while the original language should be indicated at the end of the reference.
  3. OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine has no restrictions on the length of manuscripts, provided that the text is concise and comprehensive.
  4. Abbreviations should be spelled out when they are first mentioned in the manuscript. We also strongly encourage authors to include an abbreviation/acronym list for reference.
  5. Units used in the manuscripts submitted to OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine should be International System of Units (SI). Other units should be converted to SI units. An exception is accepted for blood pressure values (mm Hg should be used).

Structure of a Manuscript

Title Page

Manuscript Title

The title of a manuscript should be a concise, specific and informative noun phrase. Abbreviations or formulae should be avoided where possible.

Author List and Affiliations

Please ensure that each author meets the authorship criteria of the journal.

Authors’ full first and last names must be provided. The initials of any middle names are optional. At least one author should be designated as corresponding author. The email addresses of all authors should be provided in the manuscript.

Each author must be affiliated to at least one institute. If author’s affiliation has changed after the study was finished and before the paper was accepted, current affiliation should be indicated as well. The affiliation should be organized in the style: Department, University/Organizational affiliation, City, State/Province (if applicable), Country. After obtaining the results of peer review, please avoid radical changes to the institute information.

Abstract

The abstract should be as brief as no more than 300 words or less and should succinctly state the purpose and main methods or experiments applied of the study, main findings, and the main conclusions or potential implications drawn from the study. Please minimize the use of abbreviations, and avoid citations in the abstract (any reference to other works should be described in the Abstract and cited in the main text).

Graphic Abstract

Authors are encouraged to provide a graphical figure or photo as a Graphic Abstract, which will serve as a visual summary of the research. This Graphic Abstract will be published on the website alongside the paper and should effectively illustrate the research theme, subjects, design, conclusions, and highlight the key findings of the study.

Static and GIF images are both acceptable. Pictures minimum of 300 dpi are preferred.

Keywords

Each manuscript must contain 3 to 10 keywords that be pertinent to the subject.

Main Body Sections

Introduction

This section provides an overview of the research background, outlining the objectives and significance of the study in relation to existing research in the field. It should clearly state the working hypothesis or hypotheses that will be addressed in the research.

Materials and Methods

This section provides a comprehensive description of the research methodology to enable others to replicate the work. For novel methods, a detailed description is required, while well-established methods can be briefly summarized or referenced appropriately. It is essential to clearly explain the resources, materials, data, and protocols used in the study, particularly for those with restricted access. The names of suppliers for all antibodies used in the study should be provided. Additionally, the methods of statistical analysis should be clearly identified, and any statistical software programs used in the study should be appropriately cited.

Ethics Statement

The research conducted should adhere to the Research and Publication Ethics Guidelines. It is required to include a dedicated section in the manuscript called "Ethics Statement." This section should demonstrate that the research was approved by an appropriate ethics committee or an equivalent institution and that it was conducted in an ethical manner. If identifiable information from human subjects has been used, it is necessary to state in the disclosure that written Informed Consent has been obtained from the subjects for the release of such information.

If your manuscript is not applicable to this requirement, please include "Not applicable" in this section. The Ethics Statement should provide, at minimum, the project identification code, date of approval, and the name of the ethics committee or institutional review board involved in the approval process.

Result

It presents the experimental findings. Tables and figures may be included in this section.

Figures

Figures in EPS, JPG, PNG, PDF, and TIFF formats are acceptable. Please ensure that Line Art has a resolution of 1200 dpi, Combo images have a resolution of 600 dpi, and Halftone images have a resolution of 300 dpi. Color figures are preferred while not charged. For image quality requirements, please refer to the Image Quality Specification

All figures in the manuscript should have a concise noun title and a concise explanatory caption. Footnotes should be clearly marked and explained.

Figures should be sequentially ordered in numerical order (e.g., Figure 1 or Figure 1A) throughout the paper and inserted in the text near their first citation.

Tables

Tables should be prepared in editable Word format, instead of inserted pictures or pieced text.

All tables should contain a brief noun title while all columns should be given an explanatory heading. Footnotes should be clearly and correctly marked and explained.

Tables should be sequentially ordered in numerical order (e.g. Table 1) throughout the paper and inserted in the text near their first citation.

Equations

Equations contained in the manuscript should be prepared by equation editors, e.g., Microsoft Equation Editor built in Word, instead of inserted pictures or pieced text.

Discussion

The findings and their implications should be discussed and/or compared with those of other studies. Future research directions may also be recommended in this section.

Conclusions

This is an optional section, which can be included if the discussion is very long or complicated.

Ending Sections

Acknowledgments

In addition to the main authors, those who provided help during the research (e.g., language check, writing assistance, etc.) should be thanked in this section.

Author Contributions

A section on Author Contributions should be included, specifying the contributions made by each author. The journal adopts CRediT (Contributor Role Taxonomy) to describe each author’s individual contributions to the work. An example of the Author Contributions statement:

Author Name: Conceptualization, writing – original draft, formal analysis, writing – review and editing. Author Name: Software, writing – review and editing. Author Name: Methodology, writing – review and editing. Author Name: Conceptualization, writing – original draft, writing – review and editing. All authors have read and approved the published version of the manuscript.

If the manuscript has a single author, it is necessary to include the statement "The author conducted all the research work for this study" in this section. Please refer to the CRediT taxonomy for an explanation of the above terms.

Funding

Funding resources and grant information should be clarified in this section.

Competing Interests

All authors are required to disclose any potential conflicts of interest. Authors must disclose any financial or personal relationships with individuals or organizations that could potentially influence or bias their work inappropriately. For detailed requirements, please refer to the Competing Interests Policy for specific instructions.

Sample disclosure statements of competing interests:

  1. If there are competing interests:

Authors may refer to the following template: “Author A has received research sponsorship from Company A. Author B is the inventor of Patent B (Patent No. xxx, Patent Name xxx). Author C owns stock in Company C. We have fully disclosed any and all interests to LIDSEN.”

  1. If there are no competing interests:

Authors should state "The authors have declared that no competing interests exist."

Data Availability Statement

Authors should describe where the research data associated with a paper is available and how it can be accessed in this section, including hyperlinks and persistent identifiers (e.g. DOI or accession number) if applicable. The data can be primary data (data the authors generated as part of their study) or secondary data (data from other sources that the authors reused in their study).

The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) provides further guidance on how to compose a rich statement. Our Data Sharing and Citation Policy also provides some examples of Data Availability Statement.

Additional Materials

To support or supplement the study, additional materials, e.g., text documents, data tables and spreadsheets, static and GIF images, videos, etc., can be published along with the paper. A list of the materials should be provided in the paper, like:

The following additional materials are uploaded at the page of this paper:

  1. Title of material 1 (e.g., Figure S1: Title).
  2. Title of material 2 (e.g., Table S1: Title).
  3. Title of material 3 (e.g., Video S1: Title).
Reference

References, throughout the text, including tables and legends, should be numbered in numerical order. Citation numbers should be included in square brackets ([ ], like [1], [2, 3], [4-8]).

Reference manager, like EndNote, is recommended if a manuscript, especially review article, contains a large number of references. An Vancouver style EndNote template can be downloaded here.

LIDSEN journals follow Vancouver citation style. Frequently used reference types are listed below. For more detailed instructions and examples, please visit: International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals: Sample References and Citing Medicine, 2nd edition.

We have provided examples of references in the following categories for your convenience and reference:

  1. Journal Article:

    Author 1 AB, Author 2 CD. (up to 6 authors before using “et al.”) Article title. Abbreviated Journal Name. Year; Volume: pages. (When page is not available, a DOI or other identifier should be provided).

  2. Book and Book Chapter:

    Author 1 AB, Author 2 CD. Book title. 2nd ed. City of the Publisher: Name of the Publisher; Year of the publication. (page p. or p. page range if any. For example, p. 254, pp. 254-259, 480p.).

    Author 1 AB; Author 2 CD. Chapter title. In: Book title. City of the Publisher: Name of the Publisher; Year of the publication. (page p. or p. page range if any).

  3. Conference Proceeding:

    Author 1 AB, Author 2 CD. Title of the presentation. Proceedings of the Name of the Conference; Full Date of Conference (Year Month Day); Location of Conference (City, State if US, Country). Location of the Publisher (City): Name of the Publisher.

  4. Technical Report:

    Author 1 AB, Author 2 CD. Report title. Final report. City of the report agency (state abbreviation if US): Name of the agency; year of the report; report number.

  5. Thesis:

    Author AB. Title of thesis. City of the University: Name of the university; year of completion.

  6. Website:

    Author 1 AB, Author 2 CD. Article title [Internet]. City of the press: name of the press; year of update [cited date (year month day)]. Available from: URL.

  7. Unpublished Work:

    Author 1 AB, Author 2 CD. Title of unpublished work. Abbreviated Journal. Forthcoming year.

After Submission

Peer Review

The manuscript will undergo a preliminary check by the external Academic Editor to ensure it aligns with the scope and meets the quality and relevance requirements of the journal. The external academic editor will be the Editor-in-Chief or an Editorial Board member with the appropriate background in the case of regular submissions, and the Guest Editor in the case of Special Issue submissions. Only after this initial check, the paper will be sent for peer review. Supplementary materials are also subjected to peer review.

This journal executes single-blind peer review which means reviewers are anonymous. Manuscripts deemed suitable will be reviewed by external experts invited by the internal assistant editor. External experts include volunteer reviewers, members of the Reviewer Board and Editorial Board, or those suggested by the academic editors. Reviewers recommended by authors may also consider. Reviewers should not have published with any of the co-authors during the past three years and should not currently work or collaborate with any of the institutions of the co-authors of the submitted manuscript. After the authors have made revisions and submitted the revised manuscript, the same reviewers will be contacted to review the revised version. Please be aware that the journal editors agree to defend the confidentiality of authors and peer-reviewers following ICMJE policy. All material will be handled in confidence except for the purposes of review and to investigate possible misconduct.

In rare cases, despite extensive efforts and numerous invitations, it may not be possible to obtain the required number of reviewers. In such cases, it may be suggested to withdraw the manuscript rather than further delaying its processing, allowing authors to approach other publishers who may have a better chance of finding suitable reviewers.

Currently, manuscript types such as Editorials and Interviews do not undergo the peer review process in this journal. The manuscript types mentioned above will be subjected to assessment by the Editor-in-Chief, Guest Editor, or members of the Editorial Board upon submission. Following this review, a determination will be made regarding the manuscript's appropriateness for publication. Except for the two manuscript types mentioned above, all other types of manuscripts submitted to the journal, including those submitted for a special issue, will always undergo the peer-review process. Please read the detailed Editorial Process here.

Change of Authorship

The journal allows authors to correct their authorship in cases where there are legitimate reasons. Any additions, deletions, or rearrangements of names in the author list can only be made prior to publication. Any modifications require confirmation from all authors, including those being added or removed, and should be communicated to the responsible journal editor. Authorship changes will not be considered if confirmation from all authors cannot be provided.

Article Transfer

If a manuscript is rejected by the journal for not meeting the established interest level, but aligns with the research scope of another journal within LIDSEN, authors have the option to transfer the manuscript to the appropriate journal. Please note that accepting the transfer offer does not guarantee acceptance of the manuscript, as the editors of the journal will still need to evaluate it thoroughly.

Accept and Proofreading

Once the Editor-in-Chief, Editorial Board, or Guest Editor of the special issue has made a decision to accept your manuscript, you will receive an acceptance letter. Subsequently, you will receive the word version of the galley proof for your review and approval. We kindly request authors to carefully review the edits and formatting made during the editing and typesetting process to ensure the accuracy of the material. It is recommended to minimize the number of revisions and modifications and focus on correcting any errors. Authors are also requested to promptly respond to any inquiries from the editorial team. When reviewing the galley proof, please highlight any necessary modifications or corrections to ensure they are easily identifiable.

Post-publication Discussions and Corrections

Debate post-publication is allowed on the journal website, through Letter to Editor or Comment. The journal encourages you to contact the Editorial Office when you identify errors and ethical issues in a published article. The Editorial Office will carefully investigate and address it following the COPE guidelines and update the published article when necessary.

Any necessary changes will be accompanied by a post-publication notice, such as a Correction, a Retraction, an Expression of Concern, a Comment and Reply and in rare circumstances a Removal, that will be permanently linked back to the original article. All these notices will be published for free. Please visit our full policy on updating published papers.

Editorial Policies

As a member of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics), the OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine editorial team has undergone comprehensive training to enforce rigorous peer-review processes and uphold stringent ethical policies and standards.

By submitting a manuscript to our journal, all authors affirm that they have read and consented to the editorial policies and that the manuscript aligns with the journal's relevant policies and guidelines.

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