Mapping science of Massage therapy during 2008-2013 in the Scopus database

Massage therapy as a field of health domain, despite of scholarly research and popularity around the world, including topics Which has been paid less in scientometrics. Hence, this study intends to observe and mapping science of massage therapy, information on major hot topics in this area is to provide users and policy makers. These tools will facilitate the understanding of the field of massage therapy. In this study, Co-word Analysis as a method of content analysis was used to mapping science of massage therapy. All articles in the field of massage therapy were extracted from the Scopus database during years 2008-2013. Science map of Massage therapy and its matrix were designed using the software Wordstat. Finally science map of Massage Therapy was drawn in Software Vosviewer. The results show that science map of massage therapy in Scopus database, during 2008-2013, consists of 11 main categories which are: 1. Common and important issues)such as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), Traditional medicine, cancer, depression and anxiety, music therapy, diet, etc) 2. Cardiovascular 3. Medications and herbal extracts 4. Body, muscle, connective tissue and joints 5. Infants, baby and pregnant women 6. Skin, eyes and mouth 7. Prostate 8. Digestive 9. Facial and Nerves 10. Pelvis 11. Lymph). Also to identify hot topics of massage therapy, in addition to weight and frequency terms, their density as a criterion for importance of topics used. The study is based on Co-word Analysis, can provides a clear and acceptable analysis from the current research situation and topics, terms and relations between terms. As an interface between the users and the database used. This way, users and policy makers can better understand the research situation and topics of feilds.