FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions / Häufig gestellte Fragen

What does CAM stand for?
What is CAMbase?
How does CAMbase work?
What does CAMbase contain?
Which bibliographical data does CAMbase provide?
Does CAMbase deliver Fulltext articles?
Do I have to pay fees for using CAMbase?
Who uses CAmbase?
Who maintains CAMbase?
Who is affiliated to CAMbase?
Where can I get more information about CAMbase?
Who does engage in CAM in Germany?

What does CAM stand for??
CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) also known as Alternative Medicine comprises an enormous range of traditional and modern methods and therapies out of the biomedical mainstream, that become more and more popular in research and clinical practise.

What is CAMbase?
The CAMbase project was initiated 1998 with financial support of the Karl-and-Veronica-Carstens-Foundation and the German Federal Ministry of Research and Technology (BMBF). Currently it is suported by the German Research Foundation (DFG). It is the aim of CAMBase, to provide a systematical overview on relevant literature of CAM.

How does CAMbase work?
CAMbase is a virtual search engine with modern XML-based retrieval-technology, that enables the user to easily find relevant literature of CAM in different ressources.

What does CAMbase contain?
At present, Cambase covers about 80.000 bibliographical records from more than 30 journals on comlementary medicine most of them not listed in MEDLINE. Some of them have a long tradition and hence play an important role for the development of Complementary Medicine in Germany.

Which bibliographical data does CAMbase provide?
In general, author(s),titel, Name of the journal/book, pages, keywords and abstracts or a short summary (if existing) is provided.

Does CAMbase deliver Fulltext articles?
A full-text archieve today is resricted by copyright laws that only allow the storage of full-text-articles with permission of authors and/or publishers. Thus, CAMbase does actually not contain full-text versions, but we keep trying to build-up a document delivery service in the future.

Do I have to pay fees for using CAMbase?
CAMbase is a free database you may use to gain information on CAM without additional costs.

Who uses CAmbase?
Apart from scientists and researchers, CAMbase is also used by pratical physicians and patients to inform themselves about Complementary Therapies

Who maintains CAMbase?
CAMbase is a project from the the chair of medical theory and Complementary Medicine at Witten/Herdecke University. The coordination and development of the contents of CAMbase is led by Dr. Thomas Ostermann.

Who is affiliated to CAMbase?
There are various institutions affiliated to CAMbase. A overview is given here

Where can I get more information about CAMbase?
There are some articles dealing with CAMbase. Just use CAMbase and type "cambase" without quotations into your request. That should give you the results.

Who does engage in CAM in Germany?
In the course of the last two decades an increasing number of research initiatives has come into existence under the terms of "Complementary Medicine" or "Complementary and Alternative Medicine" in Germany. These research groups managed to establish themselves at universitary institutions which is described in:
Ostermann T., Brinkhaus, B. Melchart, C.: Das Forum universitärer Arbeitsgruppen für Naturheilverfahren und Komplementärmedizin. Forsch Komplementärmed 1999; 6: 41-42