How Should We Write Academic Dissertation in Kampo Medicine? from Discussion in Edit Committee of the Japan Society for Oriental Medicine

• Published in: Kampo Medicine Vol. 60; no. 2; pp. 195 - 201
• Main Authors: TAHARA, Eiichi, ITOH, Takashi, ISHIGE, Atsushi, SEKIYA, Nobuyasu, KOSODO, Hiroshi, SAKIYAMA, Takeshi, KIMURA, Yoko, WATANABE, Kenji, OIKAWA, Tetsuro, IKEUCHI, Takao, MIURA, Oto
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: The Japan Society for Oriental Medicine 2009
• Subjects: academic dissertation in Kampo medicine; judge of papers; naming of Kampo extracts; rejection; terms with multi-meanings
• ISSN: 0287-4857; 1882-756X
• DOI: 10.3937/kampomed.60.195

Academic dissertations on Kampo medicine have a certain peculiarity about them, when they are drawn up by the rules of western medical writing. Compared to western medicine, oriental medicine tends to employ more subjective terms, because of its many humanistic elements. Study objectives, methods, results and discussions however, need to be stated objectively in a way that makes a paper easy to understand for both referees and readers. Although it would be ideal to use designated terms when making objective statements, there are in fact many terms that have multiple meanings, which need to be clarified in a paper. And when presenting new evidence, one must declare how far any problems have been resolved, as clearly as possible. We have explained the recent changes to our regulations for contributors, regarding Kampo formulae naming conventions, abstract word counts, and contributions by mail. Here we discuss how our editing work proceeds, and our thoughts on how papers are re-reviewed or rejected.