Background: Although acupuncture has an extensive history and practice in China, it is only in recent years that The Cochrane Library has published reviews addressing its effectiveness. Objectives: To systematically evaluate search strategies employed by Cochrane authors in acupuncture reviews. In particular, we sought to evaluate their use of Chinese databases. Methods: We searched The Cochrane Collaboration website (www.cochrane.org) in February 2009 using the search term ’acupuncture’ to identify all publications relating to acupuncture. A uniform data extraction sheet was used to capture details regarding author search strategy. Author affiliation and translation were used as indicators for language restriction in addition to self-report. Finally outcomes and findings were noted to provide information regarding acupuncture treatment effectiveness on diseases. Two reviewers extracted information which was checked for accuracy and consistency by the third. Results: Sixty-eight publications were retrieved of which three had been withdrawn. Our analysis therefore focused on 65 publications (48 reviews and 17 protocols). All publications searched English language databases. The majority used MEDLINE (99%), EMBASE (95%) and CENTRAL (92%) to identify publications. Only 26 (40%) of the published Cochrane reviews or protocols searched non-English (i.e. Chinese) language databases. The use of Chinese databases however varied from 6% (Chinese Medical Current Content) to 31% (China Biological Medicine). Forty-five per cent (n=29) had Chinese author affiliation and 62% (n=40) made use of translation to overcome the language barriers. Eight reviews had language restrictions. Conclusion: There is great heterogeneity in search strategies among Cochrane reviews focusing on acupuncture. In particular, less than half of publications used any Chinese database. This paper raises an issue relating to the consistency in the production of acupuncture publications. There is a need to develop a network of review authors who are interested in the development of acupuncture publications in The Cochrane Library.