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Featured Article: Minimal important difference of the 12-item World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS) 2.0 in persons with chronic low back pain

This study estimated the minimal important difference (MID) of the 12-item World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS-12) questionnaire in adults with chronic low back pain (LBP).  We estimated the MID as -3.22 (95%CI -4.79 to -1.64) in one cohort and -5.99 (95%CI –7.20 to -4.79) in another. MID values inform the utility of WHODAS-12 in measuring functioning to determine whether rehabilitation services achieve a minimal difference that is meaningful to patients with chronic LBP. 

Voted Best Article of 2023!

Members of the Editorial Board have voted 'Multimorbidity in patients with low back pain in Danish chiropractic practice: a cohort study' as the best article published in Chiropractic & Manual Therapies in 2023. Congratulations to Bolette Skjødt Rafn and co-authors! 


There were four nominated articles, all of which were “featured articles” during 2023. Only editorial board members that were not authors on the featured articles voted.

Articles

  1. Authors: Joseph C Keating Jr, Keith H Charlton, Jaroslaw P Grod, Stephen M Perle, David Sikorski and James F Winterstein

Editors' statements

I am convinced that the way forward for the chiropractic profession is through research. As all other professions in modern health care, we need to systematically scrutinise our theories, methods and results. It is a privilege to be part of the editorial process of a journal dedicated to publishing high quality research that will lead chiropractic and other manual therapies in this direction.

Iben Axén, DC, PhD, Co-Editor in Chief Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

Research is critical to the further development of the chiropractic profession, and the profession is gradually improving its research activity and publication output. This increased activity and improved research culture is to the benefit of the patients who seek care from chiropractors around the world. Chiropractic & Manual Therapies plays an important part of this process, publishing open access high quality research that is ready transferable to clinical practice. It is my privilege to serve the profession in this role, as a member of the Editorial Team.

Simon French, PhD, MPH, BAppSc(Chiropractic), Co-Editor in Chief Macquarie University, Australia

It is likely that our field of interest will change considerably in the next 20 years because of research. We can no longer just say about our therapies that 'It works', as this begs the questions 'by how much and compared to what'. Similarly, diagnostic tests need to be refined or abandoned in the light of new evidence. Our journal will continue to publish sound science on these and other related topics to help inform clinical practice.

Bruce Walker, MPH, DrPH, FRCC, AM, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus Murdoch University, Australia

Clinical decision making is all about presenting the best choices to patients. High-quality, patient-oriented evidence serves as the foundation of this important process. However, there are many areas within the discipline of rehabilitation where our knowledge and practices are suboptimal. It will be the role of research to fill these gaps in knowledge and inform our future practices. I am excited by the new discoveries that will take place in the years to come and am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this process as Deputy Editor for Chiropractic & Manual Therapies.

Jeffrey Hebert, DC, PhD, Deputy Editor University of New Brunswick, Canada

Research plays an essential role in improving musculoskeletal healthcare. In the best interest of people seeking care, healthcare professionals and systems must deliver evidence-based care to ensure better health outcomes and improved quality of care. I am excited and honoured to be part of the new state-of-the-art Seminars in Chiropractic & Manual Therapies, which I hope will be of value, particularly for healthcare professionals, to help them fill the known gap between research and clinical practice.

Cecilie K. Øverås, PhD, Seminar Series Editor Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Research provides us an opportunity to be systematically curious. In my opinion it is a responsibility for all health professions to ask questions that challenge our thinking and continue to explore and explain how things work and why, and what can we do better to meet the needs of the patients and communities we serve. It is an honor to be part of the editorial team at Chiropractic & Manual Therapies which offers a unique platform for advancing evidence informed practice that can make meaningful impacts to societal health and wellbeing.

Roni Evans, DC, MS, PhD, Associate Editor University of Minnesota, USA

All health care professions need to describe their practice, challenge the things they believe work, and test new ideas and innovations. Chiropractors and related health care providers need access to high quality research addressing such aspects of relevance to their clinical practice. As Associate Editor, I am happy to help facilitating the publication of evidence within this field and to guide researchers from a relatively young field of research in this process.

Alice Kongsted, PhD, Associate Editor NIKKB and University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

Continuous health care quality improvement inspires us to constantly ask patient-centred questions; measure and interpret health information; share and implement our findings; and remain open to change and evolution as a modern health care profession. As an Associate Editor of Chiropractic & Manual Therapies, it is an honour to contribute to the growth and development of evidence and a strong research culture within chiropractic and other manual medicine professions.

Cesar Hincapié, DC, PhD, Associate Editor University of Zurich and Balgrist University Hospital, Switzerland    

Editing the journal gives me an opportunity to help our profession expand our knowledge base in a way that is open to the world to see - I was actually investigating starting an open access journal with BioMed Central because I see access to the literature as one of the limitations to the use of evidence based practice in our profession.

Stephen Perle, D.C., M.S., Associate Editor University of Bridgeport, USA

Aims and scope

Chiropractic & Manual Therapies publishes manuscripts on all aspects of evidence-based information that is clinically relevant to chiropractors, manual therapists and related health care professionals.

Chiropractic & Manual Therapies is an open access journal that aims to provide chiropractors, manual therapists and related health professionals with clinically relevant, evidence-based information. Chiropractic and other manual therapies share a relatively broad diagnostic practice and treatment scope, emphasizing the structure and function of the body's musculoskeletal framework (especially the spine). The practices of chiropractic and manual therapies are closely associated with treatments including manipulation, which is a key intervention. The range of services provided can also include massage, mobilisation, physical therapies, dry needling, lifestyle and dietary counselling, plus a variety of other associated therapeutic and rehabilitation approaches.

Chiropractic & Manual Therapies continues to serve as a critical resource in this field, and as an open access publication, is more readily available to practitioners, researchers and clinicians worldwide.

Important message to authors

Chiropractic and Manual Therapies (CMT) aims to publish studies with definitive research questions that are relevant to our chiropractic and manual therapy clinical communities. We are looking for high quality research papers with clear clinical messages that are likely to influence clinical practice and will change the decisions clinicians, policy-makers, and patients make. 

In 2023, as in previous years, the journal partners (Chiropractic Australia, European Academy of Chiropractic, Chiropractic Knowledge Hub, The Royal College of Chiropractors) will generously provide funding to cover a specific number of Article Processing Charges (APCs) for articles published in the journal. 

The journal editors will decide which submissions will be covered according to the criteria described HERE

If coverage is granted following consultation with Editors-in-Chief prior to article submission, approved authors should select the 'Chiropractic Australia' account option under the 'Journal Partners' page during the APC payment stage, given the article has been accepted for publication. A link to complete this step will be sent to the Corresponding Author whilst the accepted article is progressing through Production. Authors with any questions related to this procedure are invited to contact the Editors before submitting their manuscripts.

For details on funding available from BMC, please see Funding Support Services below.

Funding Support Services

BMC provides a free open access funding support service to help authors discover and apply for APC funding. Visit our OA funding and policy support page for more information.  If you require additional advice, please contact OAfundingpolicy@springernature.com.

We also offer waivers and discounts to papers whose corresponding authors are from low-income and lower-middle-income economies - view the full list of eligible countries here.  For information about our discretionary waiver and discount policies for authors in financial need, please see here.

All discounts and waivers should be requested and discussed with Editors at the submission stage, where a token code (used to process the discount/waiver) will be provided during the Production stage if your article is accepted for publication. 

New Content Item

New article collections: 

Spinal manipulation/mobilization: past, present, future

Edited by Martin Descarreaux, DC, PhD, Jan Hartvigsen, DC, PhD, Greg Kawchuk, DC, PhD, Sidney Rubinstein, PhD, and Stephen M. Perle, , D.C., M.S.

A new paradigm for musculoskeletal pain care: moving beyond structural impairments

Edited by Julie Fritz, PhD, PT, ATC, and Alice Kongsted, PhD.

Click here to explore all articles collections

Society information

The affiliated societies are committed to the editorial independence of Chiropractic & Manual Therapies.

Chiropractic Australia, formerly known as Chiropractic & Osteopathic College of Australasia (COCA), is a not-for-profit, member-based organisation established to promote safe, ethical and effective chiropractic care and to provide high quality vocational and political advocacy for its members. Chiropractic Australia seeks to promote evidence based chiropractic care and inter-professional cooperation in order to improve community health through high quality, patient-focused care.

The European Academy of Chiropractic (EAC) has as its purpose to act as the academic arm of its parent organisation the European Chiropractors Union (ECU). It is responsible for the academic promotion of the chiropractic profession in Europe and liaison with other academic institutions approved by the EAC.

The Chiropractic Knowledge Hub has as its declared vision to be a leading centre for research, knowledge dissemination and quality development in the chiropractic profession. We work to raise the quality of chiropractic and clinical biomechanics internationally through innovative and original research, through partnerships and networks, and through our focus on interaction and dialogue between research and the chiropractic practice.


The Royal College of Chiropractors (UK) is an academic organisation with the following objectives: to promote the art, science and practice of chiropractic; to improve and maintain standards in the practice of chiropractic for the benefit of the public; to promote awareness and understanding of chiropractic amongst medical practitioners and other healthcare professionals and the public; to educate and train practitioners in the art, science and practice of chiropractic; and to advance the study of and research in chiropractic.

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In Review

Chiropractic and Manual Therapies has launched In Review, a new option that provides authors with on-demand information on the status of their manuscript, enables them to share their work with funders and their research community, and allows their colleagues to comment and collaborate - all whilst their manuscript is under review.

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Annual Journal Metrics

  • 2022 Citation Impact
    1.9 - 2-year Impact Factor
    2.4 - 5-year Impact Factor
    0.981 - SNIP (Source Normalized Impact per Paper)
    0.577 - SJR (SCImago Journal Rank)

    2023 Speed
    18 days submission to first editorial decision for all manuscripts (Median)
    136 days submission to accept (Median)

    2023 Usage 
    651,614 downloads
    640 Altmetric mentions