What's your price?

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7410.0-g

BMJ 2003;327 (9 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7410.0-g

Editor's choice

What's your price?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

About six months ago a woman representing a drug company rangme and said that she would take me to "the restaurant of mychoice" if we would change our policy on economic evaluationsand consider a paper that her company had sponsored. She stoppedshort of offering to go to bed with me, but I was surprisedby her crassness. "Are you trying to bribe me?" I asked. "No,"she answered brightly, "just being nice."

Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised. Caroline White, chairof the Guild of Health Writers, describes how guild memberswere invited to attend an "exclusive preview" of laser eyetechnology where they could "discuss free treatment in exchangefor editorial features" (p 348). On another occasion memberswere invited to a conference on cancer, but places would be free only if the journalists could guarantee copy both beforeand after the conference.

. . . [Full text of this article]

Richard Smith, editor

(rsmith@bmj.com)

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