OBJECTIVE: To assess the methodological quality, report quality and evidence quality of the Meta-analysis and systematic reviews of acupuncture and moxibustion for children with cerebral palsy, aiming to provide decision-making basis for clinical treatment. METHODS: The systematic reviews and Meta-analysis of acupuncture and moxibustion for children with cerebral palsy were searched in CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, SinoMed, Cochrane Library, PubMed and EMbase. The retrieval time was from the database establishment to June 30th, 2022. AMSTAR 2 (a measurement tool to assess systematic reviews) was used to evaluate the methodological quality， and PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and Meta-analyses) was used to evaluate the report quality, and GRADE was used to evaluate the quality of evidence. RESULTS: A total of 14 systematic reviews were included, including 37 primary outcome indexes. According to AMSTAR 2 evaluation results, there were 4 low quality studies, 10 very low quality studies, and low scores on items 2, 4, 7, 10 and 16. PRISMA scores ranged from 15 to 25, and the main reporting problems reflected in structured abstracts, program and registration, retrieval, and funding sources, etc. According to the GRADE classification results, there were 3 high quality evidences, 7 medium quality evidences, 10 low quality evidences and 17 very low quality evidences. The main downgrading factors were limitations, imprecision and publication bias. CONCLUSION Acupuncture and moxibustion has a certain effect for cerebral palsy in children, but the quality of methodology, reporting and evidence in the included literature is poor, and the comparison of curative effect between different acupuncture and moxibustion methods is unclear.
Child ; Humans ; Acupuncture Therapy/methods* ; Cerebral Palsy/therapy* ; Moxibustion/methods* ; Publication Bias ; Research Report ; Systematic Reviews as Topic ; Meta-Analysis as Topic

The number of studies related to health economics evaluation is increasing. Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards 2022 (CHEERS 2022) contains 28 items. Based on CHEERS 2013, CHEERS 2022 adds a health economic analysis plan, model sharing, and community, patient, public, and other relevant stakeholders' participation in the statement, taking into account the future development direction of health economics evaluation. It provides a useful review tool for peer reviewers, editors, and readers and supports health technology assessment agencies in establishing standard reporting standards for health economics evaluations. In this study, we briefly introduced and interpreted the CHEERS 2022 statement and analyzed an example of health economics evaluation in infectious disease epidemiology to provide a reference for researchers to report studies regarding health economics evaluation standardly.
Humans ; Cost-Benefit Analysis ; Checklist ; Economics, Medical ; Reference Standards ; Research Report

Concerns has been raised in improving the quality of adaptive design randomized trials reports. Based on the CONSORT 2010 (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials), The Adaptive designs CONSORT Extension (ACE) has developed items and reporting specifications for adaptive design trials. This paper presents a brief explanation of the extension and new items of ACE and introduces the applications of ACE checklist with examples.
Checklist ; Humans ; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic ; Research Design ; Research Report

Pharmacogenetic studies are designed to investigate the associations between genetic variation and treatment response for a particular drug in terms of both efficacy and adverse events and have high sample size requirements. To improve the quality of pharmacogenetic studies and facilitate the Meta-analyses to investigate statistically significant associations, Strengthening the Reporting of Pharmacogenetic Studies (STROPS) guideline was developed in 2020 based on the Strengthening the Reporting of Genetic Association Studies (STREGA) statement. The objective of this article is to present a brief introduction to the STROPS guideline and an interpretation of the key points in some items with examples for the better understanding and application.
Genetic Association Studies ; Humans ; Pharmacogenomic Testing ; Research Report

BACKGROUND: Acupuncture has been widely used to relieve migraine-related symptoms. However, the findings of previous systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analyses (MAs) are still not completely consistent. Their quality is also unknown, so a comprehensive study is needed. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the reporting and methodological quality of these MAs concerning acupuncture for migraine, and summarize evidence about the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for migraine. SEARCH STRATEGY: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Biomedical Databases, Wanfang Data, and VIP databases were searched from inception to September 2020, with a comprehensive search strategy. INCLUSION CRITERIA: The pairwise MAs of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) concerning migraine treated by acupuncture or acupuncture-based therapies, with a control group that received sham acupuncture, medication, no treatment, or acupuncture at different acupoints were included. DATA EXTRACTION AND ANALYSIS: Two independent investigators screened studies, extracted relevant data, and assessed reporting and methodological quality using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2009 and A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews 2 (AMSTAR 2), then all results were cross-checked. Spearman correlation test was used to evaluate the correlation between reporting and methodological quality scores. RESULTS: A total of 20 MAs were included in this study. The included MAs indicated that acupuncture was efficacious and safe in preventing and treating migraine when compared with control intervention. There was a high correlation between reporting and methodological quality scores (r_s = 0.87, P < 0.001). The quality of the included SRs needs to be improved mainly with regard to protocol and prospective registration, using a comprehensive search strategy, summarizing the strength of evidence body for key outcomes, a full list of excluded studies with reasons for exclusion, reporting of RCTs' funding sources, and assessing the potential impact of risk of bias in RCTs on MA results. CONCLUSION Acupuncture is an effective and safe intervention for preventing and treating migraine, and could be considered as a good option for patients with migraine. However, the reporting and methodological quality of MAs included in this overview is suboptimal. In the future, AMSTAR 2 and PRISMA tools should be followed when making and reporting an SR with MA.
Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy/methods* ; China ; Humans ; Meta-Analysis as Topic ; Migraine Disorders/therapy* ; Research Report

OBJECTIVE: To overview the methodological quality, report quality and evidence quality of the systematic review (SR) of acupuncture for vascular cognitive impairment ( VCI ). METHODS: The SRs regarding acupuncture for VCI were searched in PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMbase, CNKI, SinoMed, Wanfang and VIP databases. The retrieval period was from the establishment of the database to September 24, 2020. The report quality, methodological quality and evidence quality of the included SRs were evaluated by PRISMA statement, the AMSTAR 2 tool and the GRADE system. RESULTS: A total of 22 SRs were included, including 102 outcome indexes. The methodological quality was generally low, with low scores on items 2, 5, 7, 10, 14, 15 and 16. The report quality was good, with scores ranging from 19 points to 24.5 points. The problems of report quality were mainly reflected in the aspects of structural abstract, program and registration, other analysis and funding sources. The level of outcome indexes of SRs was mostly low or very low, and the main leading factor was limitation, followed by inconsistency and inaccuracy. CONCLUSION Acupuncture for VCI is supported by low quality evidence of evidence-based medicine, but the methodological quality and evidence body quality of relevant SRs are poor, and the standardization is needed to be improved.
Acupuncture Therapy ; Cognitive Dysfunction/therapy* ; Databases, Factual ; Humans ; Research Report ; Systematic Reviews as Topic

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the quality of the existing studies and summarize evidence of important outcomes of meta-analyses/systematic reviews (MAs/SRs) of CFS. METHODS: Potentially eligible studies were searched in the following electronic databases from inception to 1 September, 2019: Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), WanFang Database (WF), Web of Science, Embase, PubMed and Cochrane Library. Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) was used to evaluate the quality of evidence. The methodological quality of the literature was evaluated by A Measure Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews-2 (AMSTAR-2) and the quality of the report was assessed by Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA). The intra-class correlation coefficient was used to assess the consistency of the reviewers, with an overall intraclass correlation coefficient score of 0.967. RESULTS: Ten MAs/SRs were included. The overall conclusions were that acupuncture had good safety and efficacy in the treatment of CFS, but some of these results were contradictory. The GRADE indicated that out of the 17 outcomes, high-quality evidence was provided in 0 (0%), moderate in 3 (17.65%), low in 10 (58.82%), and very low in 4 (23.53%). The results of AMSTAR-2 showed that the methodological quality of all included studies was critically low. The PRISMA statement revealed that 8 articles (80%) were in line with 20 of the 27-item checklist, and 2 articles (20%) matched with 10-19 of the 27 items. CONCLUSION We found that acupuncture on treating CFS has the advantage for efficacy and safety, but the quality of SRs/MAs of acupuncture for CFS need to be improved.
Acupuncture Therapy ; China ; Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic/therapy* ; Humans ; Research Report

This paper aims to highlight some of the common areas of concern in qualitative research proposals and manuscripts, gleaned from the authors’ first-hand experience as an external referee and peer-reviewer. The purpose is to provide broad guidance to researchers who are contemplating on writing a research proposal or journal manuscript using a qualitative approach. The three issues are (1) application of the generic label “qualitative” when proponents or authors describe the study design; (2) overreliance on, and even misuse of, interviews and focus groups for data collection; and (3) misconceptions on the process of qualitative data analysis. Practice points are offered on how researchers can avoid these missteps. Research has been characterized as a quest for knowledge, and it has been proposed that both qualitative and quantitative approaches uncover different dimensions of “truth”. The predominance of a positivist ontology in health research in the Philippines and elsewhere, coupled with intense methodological training in quantitative approaches, however, has relegated qualitative research to second-class status. Improving the quality of qualitative research work by addressing some of the issues outlined in this paper is one way of moving past this situation.
Qualitative Research ; Data Collection ; Data Analysis ; Research Report ; Journal Article

Inappropriate authorship and other fraudulent publication strategies are pervasive. Here, I deal with contribution disclosures, authorship disputes versus plagiarism among collaborators, kin co-authorship, gender bias, authorship trade, and fake peer review (FPR). In contrast to underserved authorship and other ubiquitous malpractices, authorship trade and FPR appear to concentrate in some Asian countries that exhibit a mixed academic pattern of rapid growth and poor ethics. It seems that strong pressures to publish coupled with the incessantly growing number of publications entail a lower quality of published science in part attributable to a poor, compromised or even absent (in predatory journals) peer review. In this regard, the commitment of Publons to strengthen this fundamental process and ultimately ensure the quality and integrity of the published articles is laudable. Because the many recommendations for adherence to authorship guidelines and rules of honest and transparent research reporting have been rather ineffective, strong deterrents should be established to end manipulated peer review, undeserved authorship, and related fakeries.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Authorship* ; Dissent and Disputes ; Ethics ; Humans ; Peer Review* ; Plagiarism ; Publications ; Research Report ; Sexism

Lesions on tissues and organs critically affect quality of life, due to severe tissue defects that are threatening. Tissue repair and functional reconstruction are concurrent challenges in modern medicine. Tissue engineering brings hope for tissue and organ regeneration. Scaffolds provide a microenvironment for cell growth, proliferation and differentiation. Moreover, scaffolds influence the size and morphology of regenerated tissues. Dentin matrix, which is a natural bioactive and biocompatible scaffold, has become a research hotspot in recent years and has been widely used in tissue engineering. Studies on the use of dentin matrix as scaffolds have made a series of important progress in tooth root, periodontal, dental pulp and bone regeneration. This review demonstrates the biological characteristics of dentin matrix as bioactive scaffolds, describes the application of dentin matrix in tissue regeneration and provides a theoretical basis for the use of a dentin matrix in clinical applications.
Dental Pulp ; Dentin ; Quality of Life ; Regeneration ; Research Report ; Tissue Engineering ; Tissue Scaffolds