STM publisher Elsevier, Netherlands, has announced it has moved to provide consistent internal guidelines for its pharmaceutical services divisions when producing reprints, article compilations or custom publications on behalf of pharmaceutical companies. This initiative follows an internal review that was commenced when the company became aware of a series of publications produced in Australia between the years 2000 and 2005 that carried the name 'journal of' but lacked proper sponsor disclosures and were not in fact journals.
Given the issues identified in the Australasian series, the company is acting to ensure that all of its pharmaceutical services divisions around the globe are following consistent sponsorship practices and disclosure standards for various article reprint products. While these pharmaceutical services divisions frequently reprint peer reviewed articles from Elsevier, they are managed separately from the division that publishes the company's core collection of primary research journals.
Elsevier will review practices related to all article reprint, compilation or custom publications and set out guidelines on content, permission, use of imprint and repackaging to ensure that such publications are not confused with Elsevier's core peer reviewed journals and that the sponsorship of any publication is clearly disclosed. Elsevier expects to complete its review and issue guidelines by June 30, 2009.
Elsevier and other STM publishers each year produce tens of thousands of reprint products (authorised reprints of articles from original primary journals), mostly one or two article reprints with paper covers (compilation products), to more content rich products with reprinted peer reviewed articles and other summaries, abstracts, case studies, conference summaries and glossy covers (custom publications). These products are produced for pharmaceutical companies and serve a valid and useful educational and marketing purpose for these companies.
