BMJ  2007;334:389 (24 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.39133.531979.DB

News

Boycott publisher because of holdings in arms trade, readers told

London

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

The former editor of the BMJ Richard Smith has called on researchers and authors to boycott the world's largest publisher of scientific and medical journals, Reed Elsevier, to pressure the company to divest itself of holdings in the arms trade.

Writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Dr Smith argues that it is hypocritical for a company that publishes health journals to promote arms sales. His editorial will appear in the March issue (2007;100:114-6) but is currently available online (www.jrsm.org).

Dr Smith notes that Reed Elsevier's flagship journal, the Lancet, has been outspoken in its criticism of the arms trade and has published research that shows that death rates in Iraq are far higher than those admitted by the UK and US governments.

But the same subsidiary that is organising a forthcoming Lancet conference in Asia, Reed Exhibitions, also "runs arms fairs in . . . [Full text of this article]

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