Medical journals refuse to publish tobacco-funded research
Crossposted from The Conversation. By Reema Rattan and Isabelle Knight
Editors of journals published by the BMJ Group will no longer consider publishing research that is partly or wholly funded by the tobacco industry, the journals have said in an editorial published this week.
Worldwide, tobacco use causes more than five million deaths every year, and current trends show that it will cause more than eight million deaths annually by the year 2030.
Editor-in-chief of BMJ Open Trish Groves said editors of the BMJ, BMJ Open, Heart, and Thorax could no longer “ignore the growing body of evidence – from the tobacco industry’s released internal documents – that the industry continues to actively play down the risks of its products.”
Good move.
Congratulations to BMJ group.
In 1987 I was on the Student Administration Committee at Canberra University (CCAE). We were offered a cut-price concert by Baby Animals sponsored by a cigarette company. We were told we had to have banners promoting the cigarettes behind the group and on the bandstand while they were performing in the Refectory. We rejected the offer and paid almost twice the amount to have another Australian band, The Johnnys, play instead. I consider that to be one of my proudest achievements.