The purpose of this project was to identify social science papers in the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Oriental medicine (OM) literature. We believe the growing emphasis on qualitative research necessitates a review of the literature to date. By locating a compendium of articles that study Chinese medicine through social science, we aim to achieve two objectives. First, all of the material will be catalogued to provide a resource for fellow researchers. Second, papers on similar topics will be reviewed to produce qualitative metasyntheses that can direct future research.