STRICTA: 
STandards for Reporting Clinical Trials of Acupuncture

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The need for better standards of reporting of controlled trials of acupuncture has been evident for some time. In particular, poor standards of reporting of interventions in trials of acupuncture has led to difficulties with their interpretation and analysis.  It was in this context that an opportunity arose at a meeting of an international group of acupuncture researchers at Exeter University, UK, in July 2001.  Initiated by Dr Hugh MacPherson, one of the tasks of the group was to draft a set of recommendations for better reporting of acupuncture trial interventions. Named the STRICTA recommendations: STandards for Reporting Interventions in Controlled Trials of Acupuncture, they were designed as a supplement to the CONSORT Statement, which has led to improved reporting of trial design and conduct in general.

The STRICTA recommendations went through a second drafting phase with five journal editors and their advisors, the aim being to refine the checklist of the six key items. The guiding principle was a commitment to achieving a broad enough set of recommendations that would cover the most common approaches to both acupuncture and research design. These recommendations were co-published in articles by the key journals in the field. Participating journals are Acupuncture in Medicine, Clinical Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, Complementary Therapies in Medicine, Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine and Medical Acupuncture. Subsequently the Australian Journal of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine has joined this group. Participating journals have added the STRICTA recommendations to their instructions to authors. Translations into languages other than English are now available in Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

 

A recent initiative has seen two reviews of STRICTA being conducted: the first a review of authors of clinical trials and systematic reviews (Prady & MacPherson 2007); the second being a review of the impact of STRICTA over the six years to 2007.(Prady et al 2008) We have recently revised STRICTA (click here for revision plan) in collaboration with the CONSORT Group, such on publication STRICTA will become an "official" extension to CONSORT.