Adverts in medical journals: caveat lector

• Published in: The Lancet (British edition) 2003-01, Vol.361 (9351), p.10-11
• Main Author: Fletcher, Robert H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Advertising as Topic - standards; Conflict of Interest; Conflicts of interest; Government regulations; Peer Review, Research - standards; Periodicals as Topic; Pharmaceutical industry; Print advertising; United Kingdom
• ISSN: 0140-6736; 1474-547X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(03)12185-X

What protects readers from unsubstantiated advertising claims? As [Pilar Villanueva] and colleagues discuss, governmental regulations might be more impressive on paper than they are effective in practice because they are not vigorously enforced, either in Europe or North America. Journal editors, the other potential safeguard, do what they can to manage adverts in their journals constructively. (For a standard for good practice, see the website of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.') Editors do not have the resources to fully review all the adverts in their journals, except for gross error or bad taste. Editors can also ensure that adverts are easily distinguished from articles, by distinct differences in location, layout, use of colour, and other visual cues.' The assumption is that readers understand that articles and adverts have very different purposes. Articles are meant to "to inform, instruct, comment, and, possibly, entertain",' whereas adverts are meant to persuade. To exercise good judgment on the use of information in adverts, so the thinking goes, editors need only provide clear signals as to which is which.