Is all that glitters gold? Assessing the quality and ethics of ‘gold standard’ randomised controlled trials conducted in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander settings

•Increasingly, evidence-based practice is being applied by policymakers in Australian governments and universities to make evidence-based decisions for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations.•Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scholars and organisations have raised concerns that current evidence-based methods as promoted by Australian governments are insufficient for the cross-cultural context. With a focus on assessing evidence for its ‘study design’, not enough attention is paid to the ‘broader methodology’ of evidence, including its ethical quality.•Even though evidence-based practice methods determine that randomised controlled trials are the “gold standard” level of evidence for interventional research, we found most RCTs conducted in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander setting to be biased, of limited sample size and of varying ethical quality.•Greater control by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations across research generation and evidence-based practice is a priority.