Objective To analyze the history of and problems in research on diagnostic criteria for Qi deficiency syndrome. Methods Published literature on clinical studies about diagnostic criteria for Qi deficiency syndrome searched from China National Knowledge Infrastructure（ CNKI） were reviewed. Selected papers were exported in Refworks format. Exported paper records included author

research institution

title

published year

keywords

abstract

periodical title

volume number and start-stop page number. After format transformation

Cite SpaceⅢ software was applied to generate co-occurrence graph of authors

research institutions and keywords of related papers on diagnostic criteria for deficiency syndrome. The co-occurrence graph was analyzed. Results Totally 194 papers were included. After visual analysis

several research teams for studying diagnostic criteria for Qi deficiency syndrome were formed

including 5 consistent high productive teams. The main research manpower distributed in Beijing University of Chinese Medicine

Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Henan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine

First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine

and Dongzhimen Hospital of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. Eleven high centrality and frequency keywords were found in the research of Qi deficiency syndrome diagnostic criteria. Conclusion After more than 30 years of research on diagnostic criteria for Qi deficiency syndrome

decentral research topics

research institutes and research teams have formed. Outstanding contribution was made during 2007 to 2008. Problems in the research include mainly interestoriented studies but lack of top-level design

scattered research strengths

less cooperation between institutions

and without advantage inte-grating. Thus

it is difficult to make extensive and deeper researches.