Objective To analyze the current situation and problems of the control setting of sham acupuncture in experimental research of acupuncture animal at home and abroad

and to provides reference for the optimization of experimental design of acupuncture basic research. Methods The literatures on basic animal experiments about acupuncture in PubMed and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database（ SinoMed database） from January 1

2013 to December 31

2018 were searched

and the methods of sham acupuncture control in the literature were summarized and analyzed. Results A total of 235 papers were included. The setting methods related to sham acupuncture control were mainly non-meridian non-acupoint control（ 125 papers）

sham electroacupuncture acupoint normal control（ 69 papers）

and sham electroacupuncture acupoint shallow insertion（ 30 papers） and acupoint transdermal shallow insertion（ 11 papers）. Among them

the acupoints nearby

below the costal region and posterior superior spine

and the tail were the main selected parts of the non-meridian and non-acupoint. Conclusion There is no uniform and standardized method for the setting of sham acupuncture control in acupuncture animal experiments. The standardized non-meridian and non-acupoint selection method and its acupuncture operation standard are urgent problems to be solved in the field of acupuncture experimental research.