Recommendations for enhancing the quality of traditional Chinese medicine clinical research reporting

Abstract

Evidence based medicine (EBM) has drawn the attention of the medical community around the world and is rapidly becoming the standard in medical research. EBM requires both rigorous clinical trial research design, including adequate randomization and appropriate control, and accurate and thorough reporting of the findings of trials. Despite China's active research program, the majority of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinical research in the Chinese literature fails to meet world standards of clinical research reporting, largely due to insufficient and inadequate reporting. Because of rising world demand for information on TCM research, enhancing the quality of research reporting in Chinese journals is imperative. Quality of reporting is important in all aspects of a manuscript, including the introduction/background, materials and methods, results, and discussion/conclusion sections. TCM journal editors, who serve as gatekeepers of quality, must encourage higher quality clinical research reporting by setting and upholding publication standards.