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Category: Project

Description: The SPIRIT-TCM Extension 2018 aims to offer recommendations for TCM-related protocols, ensuring the reporting quality of the protocol publications. Despite its issued for five years, there is limited awareness of its specific application and impact in the field due to the absence of relevant systematic studies. This review thereby aimed to assess the reporting characteristics and quality of randomized controlled trial (RCT) protocols involving interventions such as Chinese herbal medicine formulas (CHMF), acupuncture, and moxibustion published in the last three years. We conducted an extensive search among multiple databases, including All EBM Reviews, Allied and Complementary Medicine (AMED), Embase, Ovid MEDLINE(R), PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and ClinicalTrials.gov for publications in English from January 1, 2020, to August 10, 2023. Two reviewers independently assessed the eligibility of the publications, extracted predetermined information, and evaluated the reporting based on the SPIRIT-TCM Extension 2018 checklist.