AI Assessment AUTO
Seven independent assessments of this revision, one per criterion. The article fails substantially on four of the six, and a reader has no way to notice: nothing in it announces that its efficacy section rests on blog posts while its safety section rests on systematic reviews, or that its central characterisation is contested rather than settled.
Neutrality decides the grade. The second sentence of the lede calls acupuncture a pseudoscience in Wikipedia’s own voice, before any evidence is presented, and on every question a patient, practitioner or regulator has a stake in, the article states a verdict rather than describing a dispute. The history, adverse-event and regulation sections, by contrast, are competently written and properly sourced. This is a well-made article about a question it has already decided.
OverallDAI
CompletenessCAI
CompetencyDAI
ScholarshipDAI
NeutralityFAI
CurrencyDAI
SimplicityCAI
? Why no + and − on AI grades?
Because the AI is a blunt instrument. Ask it to grade the same unchanged article several times and it reliably returns the same letter—but not the same + or −. The half-step isn’t reporting anything real about the article; it is statistical noise, so we don’t publish it. (The underlying reason is that our rubric describes five levels, A through F, and nothing in between, so there is no standard for the AI to apply.)
Human reviewers do use + and −, because a person means something by it. A combined AI-and-reader grade can land on a half-step too, since it is an average of the two.
Reviews
Ordered by commenter weight. Expert comments are marked.
Senior Lecturer, History of Medicine · King's College London
Academic specialist · ORCID verified
ACADEMIC
The article's lead sentence describes acupuncture as "a pseudoscience," a characterisation that no mainstream history-of-medicine textbook would adopt without extensive qualification. The WHO, the NIH, and the NHS each use substantially more cautious language. The "History" section compresses two thousand years of well-documented practice across East Asia into roughly 150 words, while Western academic reception receives three times the space. This reflects an editorial viewpoint, not an encyclopedic one.
14 Jun 2026 · kcl.ac.uk/history/staff/marsh/wikicritic/acupuncture
Biostatistician · 12 yrs clinical trial analysis
Academic specialist
X
The article cites the 2017 Cochrane review on acupuncture for chronic pain—good source—but quotes the limitations section and ignores the conclusion, which found moderate-quality positive evidence. This is verifiable by anyone who reads the review. It's not about whether acupuncture works; it's about whether Wikipedia articles accurately represent the sources they cite.
Also documented a suppressed edit:
Edit: diff 1,247,221,... · Revert (8 min): diff 1,247,224,...
Summary: "per MEDRS"
Edit: diff 1,247,221,... · Revert (8 min): diff 1,247,224,...
Summary: "per MEDRS"
22 Jun 2026 · x.com/mparr_biostats/status/1929338201048 (thread) · read in full
Answered by EvidenceBasedRN
The Neutral Point of View (Substack) · Science & media journalist
Journalist
SUBSTACK
This article functions as a position paper for scientific skepticism, not as a general-purpose encyclopedia entry. The sourcing is technically "reliable" by Wikipedia's rules, but the selection is one-directional. A reader who relied solely on this article would not learn that acupuncture is offered within mainstream healthcare systems worldwide. Compare Britannica, which opens with a factual description and reserves evaluative claims for a clearly marked section.
18 Jun 2026 · neutralpov.substack.com/p/acupuncture-advocacy
1 endorsement
Self-identified: registered nurse
X
Unpopular opinion: the acupuncture article is mostly right. The best evidence really does show the effects are small and inconsistent. "Pseudoscience" is strong but not indefensible. The Cochrane reviews people keep citing also note serious methodological concerns. The lede could be softer and the history section is thin, but the sourcing complaints are overblown. MEDRS exists for a reason.
7 Jul 2026 · x.com/evidencebasedRN/status/1931002118847
3 endorsements
Answers Dr. Michael Parr’s review, which links back to this one.
Interested reader
MASTODON
I'm sympathetic to the skeptical position on acupuncture, but this article reads like advocacy rather than an encyclopedia entry. Compare Britannica's treatment. You can disagree with a practice and still believe the encyclopedia article about it should present the evidence fairly.
28 Jun 2026 · mastodon.social/@skeptic_too/112748201
GOOGLE DOC
im a nurse and we literally use acupuncture in our pain clinic. like its part of the treatment protocol signed off by MDs. but wikipedia says its quackery lol ok. the article doesnt even mention that the VA uses it for veterans with chronic pain. thats a pretty big thing to leave out??
rating: F
rating: F
5 Jul 2026 · docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQk7Rm3x…/pub
2 endorsements
Medical librarian · 22 years
Stance: skeptic of acupuncture efficacy
BLOG
Of the sources I could check, four no longer resolve at all, two of them cited for claims the safety section rests on. The worse problem is the 2017 Cochrane review, which the article cites twice, both times for the limitations the authors note about trial quality, and neither time for what those same authors concluded. If you cite a paper twice and quote only the half that supports your framing, you have not summarized the source, you have used it.
No grades given. Comment submitted as unformatted prose; fields extracted by the agent.
11 Jul 2026 · margarethollis.net/notes/what-i-found-in-the-footnotes
3 endorsements
Talkback
Comments on the editorial process, governance, and personnel—not on the article's content
Licensed Acupuncturist · MSc, TCM, Pacific College
Practitioner, 14 years
BLOG
I've been a licensed acupuncturist for fourteen years. I treat patients referred to me by MDs, physical therapists, and oncologists. Wikipedia's article calls my entire profession "a pseudoscience" and "quackery" in the first sentence. I tried to add a reference to the 2017 Cochrane review on chronic pain. My edit lasted eleven minutes.
Edit (added Cochrane citation): diff 1,241,887,003
Revert (11 min later): diff 1,241,887,291
Summary: "undue weight per MEDRS" · No talk page discussion
Revert (11 min later): diff 1,241,887,291
Summary: "undue weight per MEDRS" · No talk page discussion
2 Jul 2026 · suzannepark.com/wikipedia-acupuncture
X
I proposed adding the NHS's own clinical guidance on acupuncture to the article. Talk page response: "NHS is not a reliable source for medical claims." The National Health Service. When I pushed back I got a message on my user talk warning me about "disruptive editing." 4,200 edits, zero prior warnings.
30 Jun 2026 · x.com/nhs_watcher/status/1930664803271
2 endorsements
Interested reader
BLOG
Why is it that the "consensus" on acupuncture articles always matches the personal views of the same five accounts? I checked the overlap across Acupuncture, Chiropractic, Homeopathy, and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Same editors, same framing, same outcome. On the acupuncture talk page alone, three of these accounts have collectively closed or archived seven discussion threads in the last eighteen months. Every one proposed adding positive evidence from published systematic reviews. Every one was closed as "no consensus" or "already settled."
27 Jun 2026 · rachelhuang.net/wikipedia-pattern
3 endorsements
X
got 3RR'd for reverting a revert of sourced content on the acupuncture article. the other guy reverted four times and nothing happened. rules for thee but not for me apparently
3 Jul 2026 · x.com/needlepoint99/status/1930227100381
Related online pages
Third-party coverage about this Wikipedia article. Not comments—stored as link and excerpt only, with no grades and no tags.
The Atlantic · 3 Jul 2026 · Rebecca Lindqvist
“The acupuncture entry has been rewritten 412 times in two years. What is striking is not the volume of editing but how little the lede has moved: eleven words, essentially unchanged since 2019, that determine what tens of millions of readers—and a growing share of the AI systems trained on them—will take as settled.”
Also relevant to Alternative medicine · Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources (medicine)
Journal of Medical Internet Research · 22 May 2026 · peer-reviewed
“In a sample of 60 contested health articles, 31% of systematic-review citations quoted limitations while omitting stated conclusions. The acupuncture article ranked in the highest quartile for this pattern.”
Submitted by a reader with no connection to the study.
Combined Grade BOTH
Overall
Completeness
Competency
Scholarship
Neutrality
Currency
Simplicity
Human Grades
Overall
Completeness
Competency
Scholarship
Neutrality
Currency
Simplicity
Comments by Tag
6Review
4Talkback
incl. 2 reverted-content reports · 1 threat report
1Rebuttal
Related Online Pages
2Third-party coverage
Contributors
4Experts
7General public
2 disclosed a stance
Sources
X 4 comments
BLOG 2 comments
ACADEMIC 1 comment
SUBSTACK 1 comment
MASTODON 1 comment
GOOGLE DOC 1 comment
Reverted Edits Documented
2 edits with diff evidence from 2 commenters.
Revert times: 8 min, 11 min.
View all documented diffs →
Revert times: 8 min, 11 min.
View all documented diffs →
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2022-09-25
Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine and a component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in which thin needles are inserted into the body. Acupuncture is a pseudoscience…
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Acupuncture (from Latin acus, 'needle', and pungere, 'prick') involves inserting and manipulating needles into 'acupuncture points' on the body with the aim of restoring health and well-being…
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Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese therapy based on sticking needles into the dermis at presumptively precise points along 'meridians'. Often described as "gateway woo"…
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Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine and a component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in which thin needles are inserted into the body. Acupuncture is a pseudoscience…
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