It has been almost thirty years since I started my job at the University of Exeter as a full-time researcher of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM). Perhaps this is a good time to reflect on what has happened during this time in the realm of SCAM research.
One of the first things I did after being appointed in 1993 was to define the aim of my unit, which was to apply science to SCAM. At the time, this intention upset quite a few people. The most prevalent arguments of SCAM proponents against my plan (apart from attacks on me personally) was that the study of SCAM using scientific methods was quite simply impossible. They claimed that SCAM included holistic and complex interventions that cannot possibly be put into the “straight jacket” of conventional research, e.g., a controlled clinical trial.