Objective To survey the current difficulties and guidance expectations of postgraduate students of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in writing and publishing international journal papers, in order to optimize the teaching mode of international journal articles for TCM postgraduates. Methods By means of a questionnaire survey, TCM postgraduate students in China were selected as the survey objects from four aspects: basic information, current situation of thesis publication and writing, paper writing difficulties and current situation and expectation of course offering. SPSS 26.0 software was used for data analysis. Results A total of 2 874 valid questionnaires were collected. A total of 1 365 postgraduate students had plans to write international journal papers; 324 postgraduate students had published international journal papers as the first author. The degree of difficulty in writing was generally rated high by postgraduate students, and lack of writing skills and time were the main reasons for the low motivation of thesis writing. A total of 2 547 graduate students felt that guidance on writing papers for international journals was urgently needed, with literature search methods and clinical research methods and experimental design as the most needed guidance, and reviewers and supervisors as the most desired guides. Conclusion The number of TCM postgraduates who have plans to write international journal papers is small, the proportion of publications is low, and the demand for international journal paper guidance courses is high. It is suggested that standardized international journal paper guidance courses be offered to improve the system of cultivating scientific research ability.