1. Focus Areas

TCM Insights welcomes original and critically informed scholarship across a broad range of traditional medicine research areas, including but not limited to the following:

• Classical Theory and Historical Interpretation Critical examination of classical medical texts, theoretical concepts, diagnostic traditions, historical medical knowledge, and the intellectual development of TCM. Contributions may employ textual analysis, historical research, comparative scholarship, or contemporary theoretical interpretation without requiring biomedical reinterpretation.
• Herbal Medicine and Traditional Formulations Research on medicinal plants, traditional formulas, pharmacological properties, preparation methods, quality assurance, standardization, toxicology, herb-drug interactions, and clinical evaluation. Studies should provide appropriate identification and characterization of herbal materials and formulations.
• Acupuncture, Moxibustion, and Traditional Therapeutic Practices Clinical and experimental investigations of acupuncture, electroacupuncture, moxibustion, and other traditional therapeutic practices. Areas of interest include intervention characteristics, physiological mechanisms, clinical outcomes, treatment safety, and methodological approaches to therapeutic evaluation.
• Clinical Research and Integrative Medical Approaches Clinical studies of TCM interventions used independently or alongside conventional treatments, including randomized controlled trials, observational studies, comparative effectiveness research, rehabilitation, and chronic disease management. Integrative research is welcomed where supported by a clear scientific rationale.
• TCM Diagnostics and Methodological Innovation Theoretical and empirical investigations of traditional diagnostic practices, including tongue diagnosis, pulse assessment, pattern differentiation, and clinical reasoning. The section also welcomes research on diagnostic reliability, measurement validity, standardized assessment, digital technologies, and appropriately validated AI-assisted diagnostic methods.
• Public Health, Rehabilitation, and Community Applications Research examining TCM-related healthcare delivery, community health, rehabilitation, preventive practices, chronic disease support, patient experiences, service utilization, and health policy. Population-level and implementation studies should evaluate effectiveness, safety, accessibility, and equity using appropriate research methods.

2. Article Types Accepted

TCM Insights considers manuscripts under the article categories established by Health Nexus. Authors should select the category that best reflects the objectives, methodological approach, and scholarly contribution of their work.

• Original Research Articles: Reports of original clinical trials, observational investigations, laboratory studies, pharmacological research, diagnostic studies, or other empirical research involving TCM.
• Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: Methodologically rigorous syntheses of evidence relating to traditional interventions, diagnostic methods, clinical outcomes, efficacy, or safety.
• Narrative Reviews and Perspectives: Critical reviews of classical theories, historical developments, contemporary scholarship, clinical practices, and emerging research directions. Theory-driven reviews may be submitted under this category.
• Clinical Case Reports: Well-documented clinical cases or case series offering meaningful diagnostic, therapeutic, methodological, or educational insights, with appropriate discussion of limitations and patient consent.
• Methodological and Theoretical Papers: Contributions examining TCM conceptual frameworks, classical medical theories, diagnostic methodologies, research designs, or new approaches to evaluating traditional medical knowledge.
• Short Communications: Concise reports of focused investigations, preliminary findings, methodological advances, or emerging issues of scientific or clinical relevance.
• Editorials and Commentaries: Evidence-informed discussions of significant developments, scholarly controversies, published research, or issues affecting TCM research and practice. These contributions are normally commissioned or approved by the Editorial Office.

Detailed requirements for article structure, word limits, abstracts, references, and supplementary materials are available in the journal's Article Types and Author Guidelines.

3. Section Goals

TCM Insights seeks to support the scholarly development of Traditional Chinese Medicine through critical inquiry, methodological transparency, and responsible scientific communication. Its principal objectives are:

• Advance Classical and Theoretical Scholarship: Encourage historically informed and analytically rigorous research on traditional medical theories, texts, concepts, and intellectual traditions.
• Strengthen the Evidence Base for Clinical Practice: Support well-designed investigations of traditional interventions, including their potential benefits, limitations, adverse effects, and clinical relevance.
• Encourage Methodological Innovation: Promote appropriate research methods for examining traditional knowledge, clinical interventions, diagnostic practices, and complex therapeutic systems.
• Facilitate Scholarly Dialogue: Encourage constructive engagement among TCM scholars, clinicians, historians of medicine, biomedical researchers, and public health specialists while recognizing differences in disciplinary methods and research objectives.
• Support Responsible International Dissemination: Promote accessible, culturally informed, ethically responsible, and internationally relevant scholarship that distinguishes historical knowledge, theoretical interpretation, and empirically demonstrated findings.

4. Peer Review and Editorial Standards

Manuscripts submitted to TCM Insights are evaluated under the editorial and publication policies of Health Nexus. The review process considers the nature of the research question, the appropriateness of the methods employed, and the strength of the evidence supporting the authors' conclusions.

• Initial Editorial Screening: All submissions undergo preliminary assessment for scope, originality, scholarly quality, methodological adequacy, ethical compliance, and adherence to manuscript preparation requirements. Manuscripts that do not meet these standards may be rejected without external peer review.
• Double-Blind Peer Review: Research manuscripts selected for external review undergo double-blind peer review, normally involving at least two independent reviewers. Reviewers are selected for expertise relevant to the manuscript's subject and methodology. TCM specialists, biomedical researchers, clinical experts, or scholars from other disciplines may be invited as appropriate. Editorials and Commentaries may follow editorial assessment procedures applicable to their category.
• Appropriate Scholarly Evaluation: Historical and theoretical manuscripts are assessed for conceptual clarity, source accuracy, interpretive rigor, and scholarly contribution. Empirical and clinical studies are assessed for research design, validity, analysis, reproducibility, safety considerations, and appropriate interpretation of findings.
• Reporting Guidelines: Authors must follow applicable reporting standards, including CONSORT for randomized trials, STROBE for observational research, PRISMA for systematic reviews, and CARE for case reports. Acupuncture trials should additionally consider STRICTA, while trials of Chinese herbal medicine formulas should follow the relevant CONSORT-CHM Formulas extension where applicable.
• Traditional Medicine Research Transparency: Studies of herbal interventions should report relevant information on botanical identification, preparation, formulation, dosage, administration, quality control, and safety. Acupuncture and related intervention studies should describe the treatment procedures in sufficient detail to support scientific evaluation and replication.
• Classical Sources and Contemporary Evidence: Authors should cite primary classical sources accurately when conducting historical or theoretical research. Contemporary scientific evidence must be used appropriately when making empirical claims. Historical descriptions, theoretical interpretations, and demonstrated clinical findings must be clearly distinguished.
• Research Ethics and Clinical Trial Registration: Studies involving human participants or animals must comply with applicable ethical approval requirements. Clinical trials must be registered in an appropriate publicly accessible registry in accordance with relevant standards. Informed consent, participant confidentiality, and adverse event reporting must be addressed where applicable.
• Research Integrity and Data Transparency: Authors must disclose funding sources, competing interests, relevant use of artificial intelligence, and data availability in accordance with journal policies. Unsupported therapeutic claims, fabricated evidence, plagiarism, and misleading descriptions of clinical outcomes are unacceptable.
• Editorial Independence: Decisions are based on scientific and scholarly merit, methodological suitability, ethical compliance, and relevance to the section. Cultural significance or traditional use alone does not establish clinical efficacy or guarantee acceptance.