INTRODUCTION

General introduction 

Acupuncture Research was established in 1976 in Beijing China, administered by National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and sponsored by Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (CACMS), and China Association of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (CAAM). Acupuncture Research is the first acupuncture and moxibustion academic journal in China and has been published smoothly for nearly 50 years. This journal mainly reports the latest scientific research results of the mechanism of acupuncture and moxibustion and clinical research. Closely following the academic frontier and hot spots, it has organized high-level columns and special issues for many times, which plays an important role in the exchange and dissemination of acupuncture academic achievements.

In China, science and technology journals are mostly sponsored by universities or scientific research institutions, rather than relying on commercial publishing houses. Universities and scientific research institutions can provide various conditions for running journals to ensure the quality of publication. The sponsor's academic resources and influence in the field can help the academic communication of the journal.

Administered by: National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine 

The administration origination of Acupuncture Research is National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which is the highest policy decision organization of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in China and administered 28 academic journals in the field of TCM. It is the most authoritative origination for developing the academic journals of TCM in China.

Sponsored by: top-ranking academic institution for acupuncture and moxibustion 

Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (CACMS), established in 1951, is the leading research organization for acupuncture at national level in China. It is a comprehensive research organization subordinated to National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, including scientific research, educational training and medical practice, etc. During the past 70 years since establishment, the Institute has presided over almost all of the major national scientific projects of acupuncture and meridian and obtained a number of high-level scientific achievements. So far, more than 130 projects participated in and presided over by the Institute have won the First, Second and Third Prizes of scientific and technological progress of the national, provincial, society and institute levels. The major scientific research progress has been made in acupuncture basic theory research, acupuncture analgesia research, acupoint effect regularity research and meridian research, which leads the development direction of acupuncture research.

Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion attaches great importance to the publishing of academic journals. It is the sponsor of three journals: Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Acupuncture Research, and World Journal of Acupuncture-Moxibustion.  They are the authoritative academic journals which enjoy the most readership in the field of acupuncture. The Institute plays an extremely important role in the history of acupuncture discipline development, strongly sponsors the construction and development of Acupuncture Research, provides a basic guarantee in human, material and financial resources for the journal.

China Association of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (CAAM) is a National First-Level Society of China Association for Science and Technology, a national, academic and non-profit legal corporate social organization formed voluntarily by science and technology workers and related units of acupuncture medicine and relevant fields nationwide. It is one of the most important academic groups in promoting the cause of acupuncture medicine. At present, it has more than 40,000 members, including the teachers, research specialists, and clinicians from universities and colleges, research institutes, hospitals of TCM, as well as academic research groups of TCM. CAAM sponsors three acupuncture academic journals.

DATABASE 

Acupuncture Research has been included in Medical Index since 1985. Now it is included in MEDLINE, CA, Scopus, EMBASE, BIOSIS, Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Chinese Science and Technology Paper and Citation Database (CSTPCD) and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). It is named “Outstanding Scientific and Technological Journal of China” and “RCCSE Authoritative Academic Journal of China”.

TYPES OF ARTICLE 

Article types considered for publication include original researches (experimental researches, clinical researches, literature researches, theory researches, etc.), reviews, academic hot spot, perspectives, standards, guidelines, academic discussion, etc. Please select the category that best describes your paper. If your paper does not fall into any of these categories, please contact the Editorial Office. However, please be aware that the journal does not accept manuscripts such as case reports, expert experience, clinical reports.

 

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION 

Online submission

Manuscripts (meaning all submission items, including all text, tables, artwork, cover letter, conflicts of interest disclosures, and any other required documents/material) must be submitted online to Acupuncture Research through submission system. This system can be accessed at https://www.zhenciyanjiu.cn. This site will guide authors stepwise through the submission process. If assistance is required, please refer to the tutorials that are available on the website; you may also contact the Editorial Office. Please do not post, fax or e-mail your manuscripts to the Editorial Office.

Editorial office of Acupuncture Research

Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion

No.16 Nanxiaojie, Dongzhimen Nei, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100700, P. R. China. 

Tel.: 0086-010-64089344

E-mail: zcyj2468@vip.sina.com

zhenciyanjiu@mail.cintcm.ac.cn

Submission checklist 

You can use templates provided by the website to carry out a final check of your submission before you send it to the journal for review. Please check the relevant section in this Guide for Authors for more details.

Ensure that the following items are present:

One author has been designated as the corresponding author with contact details:

• E-mail address

• Full postal address

All necessary files have been uploaded:

Manuscript:

• Include abstract and keywords in English

• All figures (including relevant captions in English)

• All tables (including titles in English, description, footnotes)

• Ensure all figure and table citations in the text match the files provided

Supplemental files (where applicable)

Further considerations

• All references mentioned in the Reference List are cited in the text accurately

• Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material from other sources (including the Internet)

• A competing interests statement is provided, even if the authors have no competing interests to declare

• Journal policies detailed in this guide have been reviewed

 

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Ethical approval of studies and informed consent 

For human or animal experimental investigations, appropriate institutional review board or ethics committee approval is required, and such approval, including the official approval code, should be stated in the methods section of the manuscript. For those investigators who do not have formal ethics review committees, the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki should be followed (World Medical Association. Declaration of Helsinki: ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. Available at: http://www.wma.net/ ).

For investigations in humans, state explicitly in the methods section of the manuscript that informed consent was obtained from all participating adults and from parents or legal guardians for minors or incapacitated adults, together with the manner in which informed consent was obtained (ex. oral or written). The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.

For work involving animals, the guidelines for their care and use that were followed should be stated in the methods section of the manuscript, For example, the ARRIVE guidelines (Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments Guidelines, https://arriveguidelines.org/). For those investigators who do not have formal institutional guidelines relating to animal experiments, the European Commission Directive 86/609/EEC for animal experiments (available at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/lab_animals/legislation_en.htm) should be followed and the same should be stated in the methods section of the manuscript.

Declaration of interest 

A conflict of interest occurs when an individual's objectivity is potentially compromised by a desire for financial gain, prominence, professional advancement or a successful outcome. Acupuncture Research Editors strive to ensure that what is published in the Journal is as balanced, objective and evidence-based as possible. Since it is difficult to distinguish between an actual conflict of interest and a perceived conflict of interest, the Journal requires authors to disclose all and any potential conflicts of interest.

Please ensure that the name of each author listed in your manuscript appears in either Section of Acupuncture Research Conflicts of Interest Statement form.

Submission declaration and verification 

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in Chinese or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder. To verify originality, your article may be checked by the originality detection service.

Use of inclusive language 

Inclusive language acknowledges diversity, conveys respect to all people, is sensitive to differences, and promotes equal opportunities. Content should make no assumptions about the beliefs or commitments of any reader; contain nothing which might imply that one individual is superior to another on the grounds of age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition; and use inclusive language throughout. Authors should ensure that writing is free from bias, stereotypes, slang, reference to dominant culture and/or cultural assumptions. We advise to seek gender neutrality by using clinicians, patients, as default/wherever possible to avoid using "he, she," or "he/she." We recommend avoiding the use of descriptors that refer to personal attributes such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, disability or health condition unless they are relevant and valid. When coding terminology is used, we recommend to avoid offensive or exclusionary terms such as "master", "slave", "blacklist" and "whitelist". We suggest using alternatives that are more appropriate and (self-) explanatory such as "primary", "secondary", "blocklist" and "allowlist". These guidelines are meant as a point of reference to help identify appropriate language but are by no means exhaustive or definitive.

Authorship 

The journal uses the CRediT taxonomy to define author contributions. Each author on a paper may have one or more CRediT contribution roles. CRediT author contribution statements should be provided during the submission.

Changes of authorship 

Authors are expected to consider carefully the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the journal Editors. To request such a change before acceptance, the editors must receive the following from the corresponding author: (a) the reason for the change in author list and (b) written confirmation (letter signed by all authors) that they agree with the addition, removal or rearrangement. In the case of addition or removal of authors, this includes confirmation from the author being added or removed. Only in exceptional circumstances will the editors consider the addition, deletion or rearrangement of authors after the manuscript has been accepted. While the Editor considers the request, publication of the manuscript will be suspended. If the manuscript has already been published online, any requests approved by the Editors will result in a corrigendum.

Reporting clinical trials 

Acupuncture Research has adopted the ICMJE proposal from the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) that require, as a condition of consideration for publication of clinical trials, registration in a public trials registry. Purely observational studies (those in which the assignment of the medical intervention is not at the discretion of the investigator) do not require registration. Further information can be found at http://www.icmje.org.

Registration of clinical trials 

Registration in a public trials registry is a condition for publication of clinical trials in this journal in accordance with International Committee of Medical Journal Editors recommendations. Trials must register at or before the onset of patient enrolment. A clinical trial is defined as any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health-related interventions to evaluate the effects of health outcomes. Health-related interventions include any intervention used to modify a biomedical or health-related outcome (for example drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioral treatments, dietary interventions, and process-of-care changes). Health outcomes include any biomedical or health-related measures obtained in patients or participants, including pharmacokinetic measures and adverse events. Purely observational studies (those in which the assignment of the medical intervention is not at the discretion of the investigator) will not require registration.

Identification of patients in descriptions, photographs and pedigrees 

A signed statement of informed consent to publish (in print and online) patient descriptions, photographs and pedigrees should be obtained from all persons (parents or legal guardians for minors) who can be identified (including by the patients themselves) in such written descriptions, photographs or pedigrees. Such persons should be shown the manuscript before its submission. Omitting data or making data less specific to de-identify patients is acceptable, but changing any such data is not acceptable. State explicitly in the methods section of the manuscript that informed consent was obtained from all participating adult subjects or from parents or legal guardians for minors or incapacitated adults, together with the manner in which informed consent was obtained (i.e., oral or written).

Previous publication or duplicate submission 

Submitted manuscripts are considered with the understanding that they have not been published previously in print or electronic format (except in abstract or poster form) and are not under consideration in totality or in part by another publication or electronic medium.

Copyright 

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement'. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form.

Author rights 

As an author you (or your employer or institution) have certain rights to reuse your work.

Acupuncture Research is the official peer-reviewed publication. Manuscripts published in Acupuncture Research become the permanent property of the Journal.

Role of the funding source 

You are requested to identify who provided financial support for the conduct of the research and/or preparation of the article and to briefly describe the role of the sponsor(s), if any, in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication.

Supporting documents 

The following documents must be included in your submission and uploaded to the System (refer also to the Checklist that follows these author instructions). Items (1), (2), and (3) are mandatory. Items (4) and (5) are required only if they are applicable to your manuscript.

1) Cover Letter. This must include the following information:

• title of the manuscript
• a statement that the material contained in the manuscript has not been previously published and is not being concurrently submitted elsewhere
• persons who do not fulfill the requirements to be listed as authors but who nevertheless contributed to the manuscript (such as those who provided writing assistance, for example) should be disclosed
• signed by the corresponding author
• Optional: if you have a list of reviewers who you wish to review or not to review your manuscript, you may include this list in the cover letter

2) Authorship and Conflicts of Interest Statement. Each author's contribution to the manuscript should be listed. Any and all potential and actual conflicts of interest should also be listed (see Section Conflict of interest for more information). The corresponding author is on behalf of all the authors listed in the manuscript and is responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the information provided.

3) Copyright Transfer Agreement. In the event that your manuscript is accepted for publication in Acupuncture Research, you are required to transfer all copyright ownership in and relating to the work to Acupuncture Research. Please use the Copyright Transfer Agreement form of Acupuncture Research. Corresponding author's signature must be included.

4) Signed Statement of Informed Consent. Articles where human subjects can be identified in descriptions, photographs or pedigrees must be accompanied by a signed statement of informed consent to publish (in print and online) the descriptions, photographs and pedigrees from each subject who can be identified.

5) Copyright Permission. If you have reproduced or adapted material from other copyrighted sources, the letter(s) of permission from the copyright holder(s) to reproduce or adapt the copyrighted sources must be supplied. Otherwise, such material must be removed from your manuscript.

Preparation 

A manuscript should include a title page, abstract, main text, references, acknowledgments (if any), and figures and tables as appropriate. Note that source files of figures, tables and text graphics will be required whether or not you embed your figures in the text.

 

QUERIES 

 

For questions about the editorial process (including the status of manuscripts under review), please visit our submission system.

 

 MANUSCRIPT REQUIREMENTS

Title page 

The title page should contain the following information (in order, from the top to bottom of the page):

1. article category
2. article title
3. names of all authors, and the institutions with which they are affiliated; indicate all affiliations with a superscripted number after the author's name and in front of the matching affiliation
4. declaration of any potential financial and nonfinancial conflicts of interest
5. corresponding author details (name, e-mail, mailing address)

Authorship is restricted only to direct participants who have contributed significantly to the work.

Abstract and keywords 

An abstract and 3-5 relevant keywords are required for the following article categories: Review Articles, Invited Articles, Original Articles.

Abstracts for Review Articles and Invited Articles should be unstructured (in one single paragraph with no section headings), be no more than 400 words long and include information on the background/purpose of the report, methods, results, and conclusions.

Abstracts for Original Articles should be structured into the sections listed below and be no more than 400 words long.

Objective: briefly explain the importance of the study topic and state a precise study question or purpose.

Methods: briefly introduce the methods used to perform the study; include information on the study design, subjects, interventions, outcome measures and analyses as appropriate.

Results: briefly present the significant results, with data and statistical details such as P values where appropriate; be sure that information in the abstract matches that in the main text.

Conclusion: state the meaning of your findings, being careful to address the study question directly and to confine your conclusions to aspects covered in the abstract; give equal emphasis to positive and negative findings.

Keywords should be taken from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html).

Main text 

The text for Original Articles should be organized into the following sections: Introduction, Materials (or Patients) and Methods, Results, Discussion, and References. Subheadings in long papers are acceptable if needed for clarification and ease of reading.

Abbreviations 

Where a term/definition will be continually referred to, it must be written in full when it first appears in the text, followed by the subsequent abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter, the abbreviation may be used. An abbreviation should not be first defined in any section heading; if an abbreviation has previously been defined in the text, then the abbreviation may be used in a subsequent section heading. Restrict the number of abbreviations to those that are absolutely necessary.

Numbers 

Laboratory parameters, time, temperature, length, area, mass, and volume should be expressed using digits.

Units 

System International (SI) units must be used, with the exception of blood pressure values which are to be reported in mmHg. Please use the metric system for the expression of length, area, mass, and volume. Temperatures are to be given in degrees Celsius.

Acupoints 

The acupoints should be expressed like the following. Pinyin plus international Code. Such as Rangu (KI2), Zhongfu (LU1), Baihui (GV20), Guanyuan (CV4).

Authors should be attention to that the acupoints used in animal experiments should with quotes, such as "Rangu" (KI2), "Zhongfu" (LU1), "Baihui" (GV20), "Guanyuan" (CV4), because they are not the real acupoints.

Meridians 

Meridians should be expressed like the following: the hand taiyin lung meridian.

Names of reagents, devices and other products 

For reagents, devices and other products, the specific brand or trade name, the manufacturer and their location (city, state, country) should be provided, for example, "KSPSS version 11 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA)".

Gene nomenclature 

Current standard international nomenclature for genes should be adhered to. For human genes, use genetic notation and symbols approved by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (http://www.genenames.org). You may also refer to the resources available on PubMed at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/guide/genes-expression. The Human Genome Variation Society has a useful site that provides guidance in naming mutations at https://varnomen.hgvs.org/. In your manuscript, genes should be typed in italic font.

Statistical requirements 

Statistical analysis is essential for all experimental and clinical research papers. Use correct nomenclature of statistical methods (e.g., two sample t test, not unpaired t test). Descriptive statistics should follow the scales used in data description. Inferential statistics are important for interpreting results and should be described in detail.

Funding/Support statement 

All financial and material support for the research, work, writing and editorial assistance from internal or external agencies, including commercial companies, should be clearly and completely identified in a Funding/Support statement.

Acknowledgments 

General acknowledgments for consultations and statistical analyses should be listed concisely, including the names of the individuals who were directly involved. Consent should be obtained from those individuals before their names are listed in this section. Those acknowledged should not include secretarial, clerical or technical staff whose participation was limited to the performance of their normal duties.

Figures 

General guidelines

The number of figures should be restricted to the minimum necessary to support the textual material. Figures should have an informative figure legend and be numbered in the order of their citation in the text. All symbols and abbreviations should be defined in the figure legend in alphabetical order. Items requiring explanatory footnotes should follow the same style as that for tables as described in Section Tables.

Patient identification should be obscured. All lettering should be done professionally and should be in proportion to the drawing, graph or photograph. Photomicrographs must include an internal scale marker, and the legend should state the type of specimen, original magnification and stain.

Figures must be submitted as separate picture files at the correct resolution (see Section Formats ). The files should be named according to the figure number, e.g., "Fig1.tif", "Fig2.jpg".

Formats 

Regardless of the application used, when your electronic artwork is finalized, please "save as" or convert the images to one of the following formats (note the resolution requirements for line drawings, halftones, and line/halftone combinations given below):

• EPS: Vector drawings. Embed the font or save the text as "graphics".
• TIFF: Color or grayscale photographs (halftones) - always use a minimum of 300 dpi.
• TIFF: Bitmapped line drawings - use a minimum of 1000 dpi.
• TIFF: Combination of bitmapped line/half-tone (color or grayscale) - a minimum of 600 dpi.
• DOC, XLS or PPT: If your electronic artwork is created in any of these Microsoft Office applications, please supply "as is".

Please do not:

• Supply files that do not meet the resolution requirements detailed above;
• Supply files that are optimized for screen use (such as GIF, BMP, PICT, WPG) as the resolution is too low;
• Submit graphics that are disproportionately large for the content.

Tables 

Tables should supplement, not duplicate, the text. They should have a concise table heading, be self-explanatory, and numbered consecutively in the order of their citation in the text. Items requiring explanatory footnotes should be denoted using superscripted symbols (*, #, △, etc.), with the footnotes arranged under the table. Abbreviations used in the table must be defined and placed after the footnotes in alphabetical order. If you include a block of data or table from another source, whether published or unpublished, you must acknowledge the original source.

References 

Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references and for correct in-text citation.

In the main text, tables, figure legends 

• References should be indicated by numbers according to order of appearance in the text, and placed before punctuation.
• References cited in tables or figure legends should be included in sequence at the point where the table or figure is first mentioned in the main text.
• Do not cite abstracts unless they are the only available reference to an important concept.
• Do not cite uncompleted work or work that has not yet been accepted for publication (i.e., "unpublished observation", "personal communication")

Data references 

This journal encourages you to cite underlying or relevant datasets in your manuscript by citing them in your text and including a data reference in your Reference List. Data references should include the following elements: author name(s), dataset title, data repository, version (where available), year, and global persistent identifier. Add [dataset] immediately before the reference so we can properly identify it as a data reference. The [dataset] identifier will not appear in your published article.

In the references list 

• References should be limited to those cited in the text and listed in numerical order, NOT alphabetical order.
• References should include, in order, authors' name, article title, journal name, year, volume and inclusive page numbers.
• The names of all the authors up to 3 should be included, but when authors number 4 or more, list the first 3 authors only followed by "et al".
• Abbreviations for English journal names should conform to those used in MEDLINE.
• If citing a website, provide the author information, article title, website address and the date you accessed the information.
• Reference to an article that is in press must state the journal name and, if possible, the year and volume.
• Reference in Chinese should be bilingual.
• Authors are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their references and for correct text citation.

Examples are given below:

Standard journal articles

[1] 李婧雯, 胡延超, 王艺莹, 等. 督脉电针对脑卒中肢体痉挛大鼠大脑皮层中谷氨酸脱羧酶67和γ-氨基丁酸转氨酶表达的影响[J]. 针刺研究, 2022, 47(8): 703-709.

LI J W, HU Y C, WANG Y Y, et al. Effect of electroacupuncture of Governor Vessel on expression of GAD67 and GABA-T in cerebral cortex of rats with post-stroke limb spasticity (in Chinese)[J]. Acupuncture Research, 2022, 47(8): 703-709.

[2] ZHAO L， ZHU C F， LU M， et al. The key role of a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist in body fat redistribution［J］. J Endocrinol， 2019， 240（2）： 271-286.

Book with edition

[1] BRADLEY E L. Medical and surgical management[M]. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1982: 72-95.

[2]朱琏. 新针灸学[M]. 南宁: 广西科学技术出版社, 2008: 154-155.

ZHU L. New acupuncturology (in Chinese)[M]. Nanning: Guangxi Science&Technology Publishing House, 2008: 154-155.

Supplementary material 

Supplementary material such as applications, images, videos and sound clips, can be published with your article to enhance it. Submitted supplementary items are published exactly as they are received (Excel or PowerPoint files will appear as such online). Please submit your material together with the article and supply a concise, descriptive caption for each supplementary file.

Research data 

This journal encourages and enables you to share data that supports your research publication where appropriate, and enables you to interlink the data with your published articles. Research data refers to the results of observations or experimentation that validate research findings. To facilitate reproducibility and data reuse, this journal also encourages you to share your software, code, models, algorithms, protocols, methods and other useful materials related to the project.

Below are a number of ways in which you can associate data with your article or make a statement about the availability of your data when submitting your manuscript. If you are sharing data in one of these ways, you are encouraged to cite the data in your manuscript and reference list. Please refer to the "References" section for more information about data citation. For more information on depositing, sharing and using research data and other relevant research materials, visit the https://data.mendeley.com/ or https://data.mendeley.com/ page.

Data statement 

To foster transparency, we encourage you to state the availability of your data in your submission. This may be a requirement of your funding body or institution. If your data is unavailable to access or unsuitable to post, you will have the opportunity to indicate why during the submission process, for example by stating that the research data is confidential.

 

AFTER ACCEPTANCE 

Online proof correction 

To ensure a fast publication process of the article, corresponding authors will receive an e-mail, we kindly ask authors to provide us with their proof corrections within two days. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. It is important to ensure that all corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility.

Copyright 

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to complete a 'Journal Publishing Agreement'. An e-mail will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript together with a 'Journal Publishing Agreement' form.

Author rights 

As an author you (or your employer or institution) have certain rights to reuse your work.

Acupuncture Research is the official peer-reviewed publication. Manuscripts published in Acupuncture Research become the permanent property of the Journal.