A while ago I posted about the potential danger of using peer-review for off-label extensions. Then today I saw that Merck does appear to have made-up it’s own journal to publish research!(originally posted in The Scientist, [ed. this update contains the link to the original article, sub. req.]). Anyway, this will be a very interesting development to keep an eye on – to say the least.
UPDATE:
Rather then put this in the comments……
In the current issue of the The Scientist they report that Elsevier actually published 6 journals that were “sponsored”. The full quote from The Scientist follows:
An Elsevier spokesperson told The Scientist in an email that a total of six titles in a “series of sponsored article publications” were put out by their Australia office and bore the Excerpta Medica imprint from 2000 to 2005. These titles were: the Australasian Journal of General Practice, the Australasian Journal of Neurology, the Australasian Journal of Cardiology, the Australasian Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, the Australasian Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine, and the Australasian Journal of Bone & Joint [Medicine]. Elsevier declined to provide the names of the sponsors of these titles, according to the company spokesperson.
I will keep updating this post as information comes about. I will also look for more sources and responses to this story as time permits. That being said if you find something please post it in the comments.
Cheers,
Wonder if any of it should really go in here?
Lee- it may be that they are completely reproducible results. . .you just have to keep using the copy and paste functions.
Damn – why didn’t I think of that!?
Here is a good article related to this topic. I hope to write a more lengthy post next week.