Publication: 2020 guideline evaluation report of Chinese Medical Association Publishing House

Chinese Medical Association Publishing House is the largest and most influential medical professional publishing house in China at present. Guideline is one of the important publishing types of Chinese Medical Association Publishing House. To improve the quality of guidelines published by Chinese Medical Association Publishing House, Guidelines and Standers Research Center of Chinese Medical Association Publishing House combined with WHO Collaborating Center for Guideline Implementation and Knowledge Translation, organized domestic and foreign clinical experts and methodologists to set up a working group for the evaluation of Chinese Medical Association series journals. 2020 guideline evaluation report of Chinese Medical Association Publishing House was published in Journal of Chinese Medical Association in June 7, 2021.


This report included a total of 177 Chinese guidelines published in the journal of Chinese Medical Association Publishing House and the Chinese Medical Association Audio and Video Publishing House in 2020, in line with the definition of Institute of Medicine (IOM) 1990 or 2011. IOM guideline evaluation criteria and Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation in China (AGREE-China) were used to evaluate the methodology quality of guidelines and Reporting Items for Practice Guidelines in Healthcare (RIGHT) was used to evaluate the reporting quality of guidelines. The overall score was made based on the three evaluation methods, and the top 50 guidelines with high scores were listed according to the overall score.


The results showed that the proportion of guidelines that had been pre-registered was not high, and the proportion of guidelines that had classified the quality of evidence and the strength of recommendation was significantly lower than that of international guidelines. According to the results of AGREE-China, although the average score is not high, it is significantly improved compared with the previous results of the quality of the Chinese guidelines, and there is no significant difference from the international guideline. Suggestions for future Chinese guidelines: 1) Strengthen the registration of guidelines and standardize the report of guidelines;2) Establish a guide review and advisory committee, and carry out a series of guideline training;3) Establish a more open guideline evaluation system;4) Carry out sustainable annual guideline evaluation.