Don't Believe Everything You Read in Medical Journals
Elsevier Health Sciences, the huge Philadelphia-based publisher of medical journals, is dealing with a little embarrassment right now, at the least.
Apparently, its Austrialian unit published content favorable to Merck, including its controversial Vioxx drug, without revealing that journals publishing those articles were in fact paid for by Merck. The practice, which Elsevier says stopped in 2005, came to light in a court case in Australia involving Vioxx. See AP article here and Elsevier's apology here. The story was first reported by The Australian newspaper; The Scientist reported last week on the full magnitude of the problem.
