[Quality evaluation of the Meta-analysis literature published by acupuncture journals in Chinese Science Citation Database]

Objective: To evaluate the methodological quality and reporting quality of Meta-analysis literature published by acupuncture journals included in Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD), and to provide references and demonstration for relevant studies.

Methods: The Meta-analysis literature published before December 2017 in Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion, Acupuncture Research, Journal of Acupuncture and Tuina Science and World Journal of Acupuncture-Moxibustion was retrieved by computer. AMSTAR was used for methodology quality evaluation, and PRISMA was used for reporting quality evaluation.

Results: A total of 69 literature was included. Among them, the co-authorship rate was 100% and the cooperation degree was 5.45. The first authors came from 32 institutions, and 29 literature (42.0%) was funded. The cited rate was 98.6%, and averagely each paper was cited 16.3 times. The mean score of methodology quality evaluation was (7.78±1.14) points, including 14 high-quality literature (20.3%), 50 moderate-quality literature (72.5%) and 5 low-quality literature (7.2%). The average score of reporting quality evaluation was (20.33±2.36) points, including 24 relatively complete literature (34.8%), 41 literature with certain defects (59.4%) and 4 literature with serious defects (5.8%).

Conclusion: The Meta-analysis reports published by acupuncture journals in CSCD have relatively high methodological quality and reporting quality, which could provide evidence for clinical decision making, but still the quality level needed to be further enhanced according to the writing standard of Meta-analysis report. At the same time, the overall level of experimental research should be constantly improved to promote the development of evidence-based research on acupuncture and promote the formation of high-quality evidence.