World Chiropractic Alliance

Responding to
Eight Chiropractic Issues

ISSUE 7: Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research

There is a critical need for valid, scientific chiropractic research and one of the more distinguished journals is the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation. Despite its rigorous adherence to scientific protocol, and its large editorial board which provides peer-review of all articles, JVSR has been the target of attacks from critics of subluxation-focused practices and those who champion that type of practice. At times, the criticism is of the malicious, ad hominem type that hardly deserves rebuttal.

An example of this type of spurious attack is the statement made by a medical expert witness in a case brought against a subluxation-centered doctor of chiropractic. This doctor wrote, in part:

"The Journal of Vertebral Subluxation research itself is another example of the VS group's attempts to legitimize the illegitimate. Its an electronic pseudoscientific version of a supermarket tabloid: the editor has no science background whatever and, although the editorial board changes frequently, few show any evidence of even the most primitive intellectual activity."

The facts are that the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research is a peer reviewed, indexed, scientific journal that began publication in 1996. The journal is indexed by the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), MANTIS and by the Index to Chiropractic Literature.

The Editorial Board consists of a number of well respected and world renowned researchers, academicians, medical physicians, chiropractors, attorneys and health policy experts. The Board includes individuals who have worked within the National Institutes of Health, the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, the Department of Anatomy at Harvard Medical School, contributing author to the AMA Guides for Permanent Impairment, the discoverer of the opiate receptor, an Oxford Scholar, current and past Directors of Research at chiropractic institutions, several current and former faculty from chiropractic institutions, and two former chiropractic college presidents.

It is hard to fathom how anyone can state that these individuals lack "intellectual activity."