Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23449559›Full record

ArticleAcupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society2013

Responses to the Acupuncture Trialists' Collaboration individual patient data meta-analysis.

Andrew J Vickers, Alexandra C Maschino, George Lewith, Hugh MacPherson, Karen J Sherman, Claudia M Witt, Acupuncture Trialists’ Collaboration

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Andrew J VickersDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer, 307 East 63rd Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10065, USA. vickersa@mskcc.org
Alexandra C Maschino
George Lewith
Hugh MacPherson
Karen J Sherman
Claudia M Witt
Acupuncture Trialists’ Collaboration

Funding

X-RAY CRYSTALLOGRAPHYP30CA008748 · NCI · SLOAN-KETTERING INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RES · PI Hongbiao Carl Lekaye · 1985 to 2026
$347.4M
Acupuncture Trialists' Collaboration: meta-analysis of chronic pain trialsR01AT006794 · NCCIH · SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH · PI VICKERS, ANDREW J · 2011 to 2015
$1.6M
NCCIH NIH HHS R01 AT006794NCI NIH HHS P30 CA008748
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In September 2012 the Acupuncture Trialists' Collaboration published the results of an individual patient data meta-analysis of almost 18 000 patients in high quality randomised trials. The results favoured acupuncture. Although there was little argument about the findings in the scientific press, a controversy played out in blog posts and the lay press. This controversy was characterised by ad hominem remarks, anonymous criticism, phony expertise and the use of opinion to contradict data, predominantly by self-proclaimed sceptics. There was a near complete absence of substantive scientific critique. The lack of any reasoned debate about the main findings of the Acupuncture Trialists' Collaboration paper underlines the fact that mainstream science has moved on from the intellectual sterility and ad hominem attacks that characterise the sceptics' movement.

Indexed as

Acupuncture TherapyBiomedical ResearchCooperative BehaviorDissent and DisputesHumansMeta-Analysis as TopicTreatment Outcome

Identifiers

PMID23449559
PMCPMC3658608

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.