About Osteopathische Medizin

Osteopathische Medizin

Osteopathische Medizin is the independent medical-scientific forum for osteopathy published by Elsevier (Urban & Fischer). Subtitled "Zeitschrift für ganzheitliche Heilverfahren" (journal for holistic healing methods), it conveys specialist knowledge from internationally renowned authors from all areas of osteopathy — detailed, well-founded, practice-oriented and current — and reflects the holistic approach of osteopathy by illuminating all academic-scientific, medical, historical and philosophical aspects of the osteopathic spectrum. It is the official organ of six osteopathic organisations, from the German-American Academy for Osteopathy to the Federal Working Group Osteopathy.

Overview

Osteopathische Medizin is a German-language specialist journal for osteopathic medicine, published by Elsevier under the Urban & Fischer imprint. The print edition has appeared since 2000 (Munich: Elsevier GmbH), with the online edition (ISSN 1611-8928) documented from volume 9/2008; the print ISSN is 1615-9071. The journal positions itself as the independent medical-scientific forum for all osteopaths: it mediates the specialist knowledge of inter- and nationally renowned authors from all areas of osteopathy — detailed, founded, practice-oriented and current. Its programme mirrors the holistic approach of osteopathy and illuminates all academic-scientific, medical, historical and philosophical aspects of the osteopathic spectrum. The journal is indexed in Scopus, documenting its scientific standing, and is available through ScienceDirect with an RSS feed for current articles. Library holdings — such as the KIT library's Elsevier DEAL archive (volumes 9/2008–23/2022) and the DEAL Core Hybrid coverage from volume 24/2023 — document the journal's continuous publication into the mid-2020s. The journal's readership is the academically oriented osteopathy community: the physicians and therapists who practise osteopathic medicine as a holistic healing method.

History

The print edition's bibliographic record begins in 2000 with Elsevier GmbH in Munich — the journal was launched as the scientific forum for the German osteopathic-medicine community at the turn of the millennium, when osteopathy in Germany was moving from the private schools into academisation. The online edition followed, documented from volume 9 in 2008 under the Urban & Fischer imprint in Jena. The journal's development tracks the professionalisation of German osteopathy: the founding of the academies and societies that made it their official organ, the growth of the osteopathy congresses — Torsten Liem, the journal's co-editor, organises the internationally largest osteopathy congress in Berlin — and the scientific consolidation documented by the Scopus indexing. The 2008–2010 volumes, offered as complete year sets in the antiquarian trade, show the journal's format at the end of its first decade: the holistic-healing-methods programme in the quarterly rhythm. The KIT library's holdings — the Elsevier DEAL archive covering volumes 9/2008 through 23/2022 and the DEAL Core Hybrid from 24/2023 — document the journal's uninterrupted run through the 2010s and into the 2020s. The journal's subtitle, "Zeitschrift für ganzheitliche Heilverfahren," has defined its identity from the start: not the technique manual but the medical-scientific forum, the holistic approach in the academic format. The 2000 launch positioned the journal at the moment when German osteopathy was outgrowing the private-school phase: the profession needed the peer-reviewed forum where the German-American academy's tradition, the medical society's clinical standards and the professional associations' interests could meet in print. The Scopus indexing — the journal's presence in the international citation database — documents that the forum succeeded: the German osteopathic-medicine discourse became part of the international scientific record, from the Munich print edition of 2000 to the ScienceDirect distribution of today.

Coverage and Content

The journal's programme covers the osteopathic spectrum in its entirety: the academic-scientific aspects — the research, the evidence base, the scientific foundations that, as the related textbook literature emphasises, rest on conventionally secured knowledge; the medical aspects — the clinical pictures from the osteopathic perspective, the therapeutic strategies by body region and by specialty discipline (paediatrics, geriatrics, psychology, pain therapy, neurology, rheumatology, sports medicine); the historical aspects — the tradition from Andrew Taylor Still through the cranial field to the present; and the philosophical aspects — the holistic principles, the unity of the body, the self-healing powers. The authors are the inter- and nationally renowned specialists of the field: the academy teachers, the congress organisers, the researchers. The journal's cooperation with the International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine (IJOM) connects the German discourse to the international one. The clinical presentation follows the osteopathic-medicine method: the disease picture first from the conventional-medical perspective, then the osteopathic view and treatment — the parietal, visceral and craniosacral treatment presented in the totality in which it is applied, without artificial separation. This method is the journal's answer to the criticism of alternative medicine's thin evidence base: the osteopathic treatment shown in the context of the conventional diagnosis, the holistic approach argued with the academic-scientific instruments. The historical articles trace the lineage from Andrew Taylor Still's 19th-century founding through William Garner Sutherland's cranial work to the German academisation; the philosophical articles examine the principles — the body as unity, the self-healing powers, the structure-function reciprocity — that distinguish osteopathic medicine from manual therapy. The journal's forum character — the independent medical-scientific forum for all osteopaths — makes it the meeting point of the profession's schools and directions: the six organisations' common journal, where the DAAO's German-American tradition meets the DGOM's medical society, the DVOM's professional association and the BAO's federal working group.

Organization and Ownership

Osteopathische Medizin is published by Elsevier under the Urban & Fischer imprint — the German medical publishing house that Elsevier integrated, with the journal's print edition originally appearing from Elsevier GmbH in Munich. The journal is the official organ of six organisations: the Deutsch-Amerikanische Akademie für Osteopathie (DAAO) e.V., the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Osteopathische Medizin (DGOM) e.V., the Deutscher Verband für Osteopathische Medizin (DVOM) e.V., the Register der Traditionellen Osteopathen in Deutschland (ROD) GmbH, the Verband Osteopathie Schule Deutschland (VOSD) and the Bundes Arbeitsgemeinschaft Osteopathie (BAO) e.V. It cooperates with the International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine (IJOM). The co-editor Torsten Liem D.O. — founder of the Osteopathie Schule Deutschland, organiser of the internationally largest osteopathy congress in Berlin, osteopath in his own Hamburg practice and internationally sought lecturer — represents the journal's connection to the profession's teaching and congress life. The commercial model is the scientific journal's: subscriptions through the Elsevier shop, institutional licences through the DEAL consortia (documented by the KIT, HKA and DHBW holdings), and ScienceDirect distribution with Scopus indexing. Detailed circulation figures and the exact current frequency are not publicly confirmed in the sources available.

Digital Presence

The journal's digital home is ScienceDirect, where the current articles are available with an RSS feed for new publications, and the Elsevier shop, which handles subscriptions (ISSN 1615-9071). The Scopus indexing documents the journal's scientific visibility. The library portals — the KIT catalogue, the GSI repository, the EZB electronic journals library — record the bibliographic data: "Osteopathische Medizin: Zeitschrift für ganzheitliche Heilverfahren," Urban & Fischer, Jena, from 2008, online and print, DDC 610, keywords complementary and alternative medicine. The cooperation with the International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine extends the journal's reach into the international osteopathic literature. In the German osteopathy media landscape the journal occupies the scientific-forum pole: alongside the VOD's patient magazine Osteopathie and the Thieme DO – Deutsche Zeitschrift für Osteopathie, Osteopathische Medizin is the independent medical-scientific forum — the journal of the six organisations, the holistic approach in the academic format, from Elsevier's Urban & Fischer imprint to the osteopathic-medicine community, in print since 2000 and online, indexed in Scopus, every issue.