Background Acupuncture practice plays an important role in healthcare in China as well as in the world. 2011, the China Academy of the Chinese Medical Sciences (CACMS) published 5 Clinical practice guidelines (CPGS) of acupuncture, which were the only 5 CPGS specialised for acupuncture in China. Our research was to systematically review the quality of these 5 CPGS.

Methods We evaluated the quality of the 5 CPGS through the guideline appraisal instrument: Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II (AGREE II). Four appraisers rated 6 domains separately.

Results None of the included 5(0%) guidelines described the systematic methods for searching and selecting the evidence, and all (100%) appraised the quality of evidence and graded the strength of recommendations. 5 guidelines (100%) reported the guideline panel which involved special methodologists, and 5(100%) mentioned updates but no one (0%) described a procedure and frequency for updating the guideline. None of the guidelines (0%) considered the patients values, and no one (0%) used the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system. None (0%) reported the conflicts of interests. From the assessment with AGREE II, the mean scores were very low for the domains editorial independence (2%) and applicability (8%),while the other domains were low for the rigour of development (18%), stakeholder involvement (35%), ‘clarity of presentation’ (46%) and ‘scope and purpose’ (54%).

Implications Now, the quantity of CPGS of acupuncture is very small. As the quality of the guidelines of acupuncture was low, they were still lots of limitations. The research in methodology of the CPGS of acupuncture still must be enhanced.