top.gif (49565 bytes)


Articles ] STRICTA Checklist ] Journals ] Reviews of STRICTA ] Revising STRICTA ] Making contact ]

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, from 2nd to 4th 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. At this point these recommendations were named the STRICTA recommendations: STandards for Reporting Interventions in Controlled Trials of Acupuncture. They were designed as a supplement to CONSORT which has led to improved reporting of trial design and conduct in general (see the CONSORT Statement).

This first draft of recommendations went through a wider consensus-building process that involved the editors of  the key journals within the field that were publishing the results of clinical trials of acupuncture.   Thus the STRICTA recommendations went through a second drafting phase with journal editors and their advisors, the aim being to identify a checklist of the 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. 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 last six years (Prady et al 2008). Current plans are to revise STRICTA in collaboration with the Cochrane Group, such that STRICTA becomes an "official" extension to CONSORT (click here for details).

 

bottom.gif (1512 bytes)