Published 4 December 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2852
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2852

Editor's Choice

Breaking the embargo

Fiona Godlee, editor, BMJ

fgodlee@bmj.com

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

The breaking of media embargoes comes pretty high on the list of editors’ pet hates. What’s an embargo? It’s the date and time before which we ask journalists to refrain from reporting something we are due to publish. We issue a press release a few days beforehand, and, because journalists benefit from a system that gives them all a fair run in preparing their story, breaches are rare.

Why am I raising this now? Because a study in this week’s print journal—on the effects of caffeine in pregnancy (doi:10.1136/bmj.a2332)—was reported in the press before we published it online (2 November Sunday Times and others). This report wasn’t technically a breach of embargo because the press release hadn’t yet been issued, but it was publicity before publication. The study’s funder, the Food Standards Agency, had held a stakeholders meeting before we issued our embargoed press release. It was probably . . . [Full text of this article]


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Maternal caffeine intake during pregnancy and risk of fetal growth restriction: a large prospective observational study
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BMJ 2008 337: a2332. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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BMJ 2008 337: a2316. [Extract] [Full Text]

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