Wikipedia:WikiProject Alternative medicine

Welcome to the WikiProject on Alternative Medicine.

WikiProject on Alternative Medicine
CAM Portal
Use the best sources
Standards of Quality
To Do List

These project pages are only suggestions, as all WikiProjects are, that are designed to stop the madness of edit wars or editing articles in a never ending spiral of circular editing on articles related to alternative medicine.

Scope and goals

This WikiProject aims primarily to facilitate the development of professional articles on all aspects of complementary, alternative and integrative medicine. The scope of this Wikiproject will be referred to throughout our project pages simply as CAM.

Scope

The scope of a Wikiproject identifies the types of articles that participants of a project will be working on.

• Glossary of alternative medicine - Short definitions of important terms and concepts unique to CAM. This annotated list is the primary introduction to alternative medicine and a comprehensive gateway to Wikipedia's articles on CAM.
• List of branches of alternative medicine
• Famous people in alternative medicine - This list directs readers to articles about historical people in CAM.
• List of alternative medicine subjects - A master list, of all the articles currently existing on Wikipedia that have been identified as being related to CAM; or that are about an alternative position on health, healing, and/or illness; or are related to these topics.
• Category:Concepts in alternative medicine - These articles are about an alternative position on health, healing, and/or illness; or are related to these topics.
  • Issues related to the promotion and definition of health, wellness and healing.
  • Illness, along with its prevention, conception, and specific forms targeted by alternative treatments.
• History of alternative medicine - These articles are about the history of CAM. Here, CAM is approached from the perspective of how CAM developed historically.

Goals

1. To improve the number and quality of articles edited by our participants.
   • To develop and promote standards of quality guidelines to be followed in CAM related articles participating in this WikiProject.
   • To help stabilize controversial CAM articles and reduce edit warring.
   • To support the use of the highest-quality sources, not merely the sources that support the "right" conclusions.
2. To develop and promote classification systems that are suitable for comparing the various systems or schools of CAM to each other.
3. To function as the centralized sounding board or watchlist for all CAM-related issues.

Related WikiProjects

• WikiProject Alternative education
• WikiProject Alternative Views
• WikiProject Paranormal
• WikiProject Medicine

Participants

Participants in this WP:WikiProject may do as little or as much as they'd like. As with all Wikipedia articles, anybody may edit articles related to CAM.

User name	Talk page	Special interests or contributions	Additional Comments
John Gohde, aka Mr-Natural-Health	Talk	Natural health, natural therapy and Psychosocial or Mind - Body Interventions, as well as the founder and developer of this WikiProject. Alternative Medicine covers a big topic area. My interest lies in the subset of topics covered by the intersection of Wellness Movement and Natural philosophy. If pornography can be treated neutrally on Wikipedia, I see no reason why alternative medicine should not be.	I prefer to work on meta pages. In other words, on stuff that would really make a major impact. So, far things are going quite well. While the graveyard of portals that were never quite launched is vast and deep, I got our portal up in just one day. I wont be spending much time here, unless I see more of a collaborative group effort taking place on this project. But, I will be checking in often enough to keep this project active. And, to see that the topic of Alternative Medicine on Wikipedia gets fairly treated. -- John Gohde (talk) 02:23, 13 January 2009 (UTC)
Ashibaka	Talk	alternative medicine and other areas of pseudoscience
Heidimo	Talk	traditional Chinese medicine, medical intuition, auriculotherapy	I have practical expertise in these fields as well as writing/proofreading/editing skills. I teach and write on these topics regularly.
irismeister	Talk	Interested in health, non-visual eye physiology, free speech and free thinking.
Karen S Vaughan	Talk	Interested in forming a subproject on Herbalism. I have written or extensively modified a number of articles on herbs, herbalists and herbal medicine, adding references, correcting information from secondary sources and improving accuracy.	Clinical herbalist and licensed acupuncturist in NY State, have written, been interviewed for books and television on the subject. Also certified in essential oils and have had various energy medicine trainings.
Greenman	Talk
DryGrain	Talk
xyberdoc	Talk		Homer Lim, MD from St Carlos Medical Center
ALargeElk	Talk
SargonZ	Talk		First year osteopathic medical student at Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Smithfarm	Talk
Ballista	Talk
AnaBryce	Talk	This is one of my primary areas of interest.	I have been learning and working with various alternative healing methods for about 4-5 years.
Merkinsmum	Talk	I've studied reiki and other forms of CAM	But also scepticism, so think I can write with NPOV
meco	Talk	I'm interested in holism, thus systems that distance themselves from the reductionism of the current scientific (and in particular the allopathic medical) paradigm are of interest to me. I have a particular interest in the work and legacy of Wilhelm Reich, partly because my great grandfather worked closely with him. Among articles I have created I would name in particular Sex economy (essay). I have worked as a registered nurse in Norway (I am Norwegian), but am now wholly involved in what I label God-work.
William Courson	Talk	Interested in discussing all topics relevant to ayurvedic medicine and ayurvedic medical education in India and abroad. Special interests include ayurvedic 'subtle therapies' and the place of energy healing in ayurvedic praxis.	Clinical herbalist and ayurvedic practitioner in New Jersey (USA). Author of numerous professional and popular articles on the subjects of ayurveda, herbalism (ayurvedic and western) and energy healing, esp. Reiki. Usui Reiki Master, also certified in Bach and other systems of flower essence therapy. Director, New Jersey Institute of Ayurveda (distance education program for ayurvedic practitioners). Principal, Vedic Energy Healing, L.L.C.
Levine2112	Talk
Fyslee	Talk	Interests: quackery, chiropractic, homeopathy, applied kinesiology, vaccine controversy, fanaticism, Hulda Clark, medical ethics, conspiracy theories, scientific method, etc..	Physical Therapist and Physicians Assistant, and (previously) assistant to MDs in cardiovascular research. As a former practitioner of alternative medicine and a scientific skeptic I can provide balance, since I can see things from both sides, having "been there and done that."
Friarslantern	Talk	personal experience with use (success, failure, and everything in between) of alt. med.; interest in the anthropology of alt. med & the socio-economic factors affecting science research as it relates to acceptance of alt. med.	none
Anthon01	Talk
Remark_knights	Talk	Interests: Chinese medicine and philosophy, acupuncture, and meditation.	Profile: I am a an active acupuncturist in Berlin, NH. I also practice Chinese herbology.
MasterOfHisOwnDomain	Talk	Interested in Ancient Medicine, creator of Prehistoric medicine article
CorticoSpinal	Talk	Interests: Chiropractic medicine, manual therapy, medical acupuncture, kinesiology, sports chiropractic/medicine, research, integrative medicine, rehabilitation, motor control, painquackery,	Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine, Kinesiologist, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Medical Acupuncturist. I represent the evidence-based wing of chiropractic apply a scientific POV to understanding and integrating complementary therapies into clinical practice.
Tyciol	Talk	Stuff like chiro and ayurveda are interesting. I like inversion therapy, vibration therapy, and have a pet fascination with Alex Chiu so I guess magnet therapy. Also electrotherapy is pretty neat, like Dr. Ho's stuff he shocks people with to engage their muscles. I am interested in the full extent of what massage therapy does, and also things related to TCM like acu.	No certifications, not a very extensive education. Working on that.
User:Stevertigo	User talk:Stevertigo	Pseudoscience, alternative medicine, cranks, snake oil (and their salesmen), good editing, attribution and citation of controversial claims, removing weasel terms and language, calling a spade a spade, taking out the trash, making Wikipedia actually readable, the destruction of BS writing, logical and thoughful categorization, Holiness, Truth, educating the newbies, pointing out the ridiculousness of people who claim to 'apply scientific methods' to completely non-scientific topics, the distinction between religious concepts and alternative concepts, ...and table tennis.	I've been on Wikipedia for almost seven years. I had thought the alternative medicine articles had been better than they apparently are. I was wrong. So wrong.
David_notMD	Talk	Evidence-based science in support of complementary and alternative medicine, with focus on dietary supplements and functional foods.	PhD in nutritional biochemistry; 25 years working in industry; currently a science consultant to companies wanting to make health claims for their products
Mitchel2	Talk	Tradition African medicine	I'm new to Wikipedia and am doing a school project on Traditional African Medicine for my Shaping of the Modern World class at Duquesne University. It's taking me a while to get used to the wikimark-up and templates, so if anyone is able to help or edit my article that would be amazing. The goal of the project is to reach Good Article status, so hopefully I will be able to eventually get my article there and help further the alternative medicine project.
DJBarney24	Talk	Lack of Encyclopaedic entries in the Alternative Medicine field	While doing voluntary work for the Human Rights campaign group MindFreedom International I noticed a lack of NPOV and lack of obvious references in many articles. For example the Schizophrenia article has a single reference to R D Laing, at least in it's current form. His name is not even mentioned in the main text and yet he is a major figure in this field. Perry is completely absent. Mosher and Soteria are in the main text but the text looks muddled and confusing. Editors do not seem to be aware of the wealth of references out there; "Although research evidence is limited", and yet they are there. For example you can see many of them here that I rescued from my local University. Some alternative health practitioners like Dr Matthias Rath have accused Wikipedia of becoming a mouthpiece for commercially driven "mainstream" health (see here). His criticisms are valid but he makes the mistake of attacking Wikipedia. For instance, to use Rath as an example, he could join this WikiProject and do what everyone else is doing in other areas with NPOV problems. Judging by my work with MindFreedom this appears to be a major problem with people making valid edits, having them removed and then backing off never to return. So there appears to be a widespread misunderstanding in this field with what Wikipedia actually is and does, that can be addressed with some simple education. DJ Barney (talk) 13:53, 19 July 2010 (UTC)
Sebbi	Talk	Somatics - working with movement and touch in experiential learning processes	I am a student of Choreography with Community Practice and a huge part of my training has been in somatics and release technique (a dance technique based on similar principles). My main area of study in this has been experiential anatomy, especially informed by the work of Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen. This work sees the human experience as a continuous whole, not recognising an absolute distinction between body and mind. In the next year or two I plan to begin post-graduate training as a Somatic Movement Educator. I am interested in how different traditions relate and correlate with each other, or not.
Mdavid9	Talk	Alchemy, Reiki, healing and everything related to energies	I am a Master Alchemist and study everything related to energies, healing and emotions. Several articles contain inaccurate or incomplete information about several topics related to energies and alternative medicine. I won't spend time writing the major parts of the articles. However, when I find something wrong or missing, I'll tweak some information and comment about it. The undoing of valid edits is a major problem in controversial topics such as energies and alternative medicine. I am sure this can be resolved with proper communication and education.

Standards of Quality Guidelines

Our Standard of Quality Guidelines are the unofficial advice from our participants. They are not part of "official" wikipedia policy, but they may provide useful advice. Similarly, the official guideline, WP:Manual of Style (medicine), is often useful.

This project fully supports the main content policies: WP:Verifiability of all material in published sources, WP:No original research or use of personal experiences by Wikipedians, and WP:Neutral point of view as determined by the overall balance of reliable sources. Be careful not to pretend that all viewpoints are equally accepted.

Substantial formal research has been conducted on CAM. Information about finding and understanding research papers is available at WP:Identifying reliable sources (medicine).

Templates

Infoboxes

Many CAM articles benefit from inclusion of {{Infobox alternative medicine}}.

Project banner

This project tags articles, lists, categories, and templates within its scope. To tag a page, paste {{WikiProject Alternative Medicine}} at the top of its talk page. The template looks like this:

We use the Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Assessment standards, and articles should be tagged as stub, start, C, or B class. See #Assessment below.

NCCAM classifications

These NCCAM classifications have been adopted by our WikiProject. They are to be used for tagging only the branches of CAM articles. The article definitely should be mostly about CAM.

1. {{Alternative medical systems}}
2. {{Mind-body interventions}}
3. {{Biologically based therapy}}
4. {{Manipulative methods}}
5. {{Energy therapy}}

Userboxes

Participants may choose to paste {{User WikiProject Alternative medicine}} on their user pages. This displays this userbox:

This user is a participant in
WikiProject
Alternative medicine.

CAM Portal

Portals are pages intended to serve as 'Main Pages' for specific topics or areas. Portals may be associated with one or more WikiProjects; unlike WikiProjects, however, they are meant for both readers and editors of Wikipedia, and should promote content and encourage contribution.

This WikiProject supports Portal:Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Unlike normal articles, the content of portals are spread over dozens of different pages or files. Please do not edit the main CAM portal page without a working knowledge of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). However, you are encouraged to edit its many subpages, which work very much like regular articles.

The CAM Portal is built around 13 boxes in 10 rows. Each box is assigned a number in ascending order. When the portal page is displayed, either two boxes share one row, or one box fills the full width of the row.

Most of the boxes contain static information about CAM and this project, and these boxes are easy for anyone to improve. Just click on the edit hyperlink in the box's title bar, and edit like any other page. (If it contains a code that you'd don't understand, just leave the code alone.) Section headings used in any display box should be ===Level 3=== headings. Using section headers levels 1 and 2 will mess up the box number count sequence.

Four of the boxes are special: They display different content each time the portal is viewed. These boxes can be maintained with introductions to various articles, biographies, pictures, and quotes.

• The main CAM portal page contains a separate random number generator for each of these specific boxes. If, for example, the project has written 24 quote pages, then you would set the quote random number generator to 24 (ie, max=24). A smaller number would also work, but won't display the content of additions that are greater than the respective number.
• Each new quote page/file should be created sequentially (ie, /Quotes/24) on the More Quotes... page. Adding additional introductions to selected articles, biographies, and pictures would work essentially the same way.
• With due care, most editors should be able to correctly maintain these files. See our Open Tasks, below, for additional details.

Open Tasks

Participates of this project are expected to edit stuff on Wikipedia on their own initiative, unless someone is attempting to organize a group project on our talk pages. A few good places to start would be:

• Glossary of alternative medicine -- A major list of the terms and concepts used in alternative medicine. Always something to be fine tuned or added to this gateway to CAM articles.
• Category:Alternative medicine stubs -- You can help Wikipedia by expanding these articles. Then be sure to remove them from the stub category.
• The abandoned Template:Alternative medical systems series of templates / infoboxes should be adopted by this WikiProject since they have been accepted by the Wikipedian community, to date.
  • Whoever started this series of infoboxes did not complete the task.
    • Some of the sub-category infoboxes were never created.
    • Some of the tagged articles are using the wrong template/box, when a another one would be more appropriate.
    • Not all of the branches of alternative medicine articles have been tagged with this template/infobox.
• Our Wikiproject's Offical To Do List of New Topics -- List of Missing Topics that our participants would like to see covered.
• Maintain our Portal:Complementary and Alternative Medicine
  • There are some 1,000+ CAM related articles, all of which a short introduction can be written for and added to our archive of articles. The introductions should be copied directly from the respective articles, along with the read more hyperlink teaser.
    • Selected Articles box
    • Selected Biographies box
  • Copies of the pictures used to illustrated CAM related articles can be added to our Selected Pictures box.
    • Simply copy the image coding directly from the article. The coding, however, should be changed in order to center the image, before saving it.
  • CAM related quotations can be added to our Quotes box.

Assessments

Another open task that can be worked upon is to rate the CAM articles regarding their degree of completeness. The Wikipedia article rating system is based upon a letter scheme which reflects principally how complete the article is. The first step in this process is to place our Wikiproject banner on the talk page of a CAM article.

Alternative medicine pages by quality
Quality
	Total
FA	2
FL	1
GA	25
B	159
C	407
Start	818
Stub	277
List	32
Category	221
Disambig	3
File	7
Project	6
Template	14
NA	153
Assessed	2,125
Unassessed	29
Total	2,154
WikiWork factors (?)		ω = 7,907			Ω = 4.68

Core Project Articles

The following lists/categories are considered important to our WikiProject.

Core Lists

Every CAM article in Wikipedia needs to be represented in one of these master lists. Otherwise, people may not be able to find our articles.

1. Glossary of alternative medicine
2. List of branches of alternative medicine
3. List of famous people in alternative medicine
4. List of alternative medicine subjects

Core Categories

• List of all subpages of this page

External links

• Wikiproject Watchlist - WikiProject Alternative medicine
• Search for subpages belonging to this WikiProject