A review of influenza vaccine studies has been published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), authored by Dr. Tom Jefferson of Cochrane Field, Italy, and colleagues. The review found that published influenza vaccine studies sponsored by industry are treated more favourably by medical journals even when the studies are of poor quality.
Dr. Jefferson and his colleagues identified and assessed 274 published studies on influenza vaccines for their methodological quality and found no relationship between study quality, publication in prestige journals and their subsequent citation in other articles. They also found that most influenza vaccine studies are of poor quality but those with conclusions favourable to influenza vaccinations are of significantly lower methodological quality. The single most important factor determining where the studies were published or how much they were cited was sponsorship, with those partially or wholly funded by the pharmaceutical industry having higher visibility.
The study shows that one of the levers for accessing prestige journals is the financial size of the sponsor. Pharma sponsors order many reprints of studies supporting their products, often with in house translations into many languages. They also purchase advertising space in the journal. Many publishers openly advertise these services on their website.
More information on the BMJ study 'Relation of study quality, concordance, take home message, funding and impact in studies of influenza vaccines: a systematic review,' is available online at http://www.BMJ.com or http://www.NVIC.org.
