PLoS Journal to Reject Research Funded by Tobacco Industry

Researchers who accept money from the tobacco industry will no longer be able to get their work published in PLoS Medicine, a journal produced by the Public Library of Science (PLoS).

Reuters reported Feb. 23 that the new policy was detailed in an editorial which stated, “While we continue to be interested in analyses of ways of reducing tobacco use, we will no longer be considering papers where support, in whole or in part, for the study or the researchers come from a tobacco company.”

Journal editors said the change was made due to “the industry's longstanding attempts to distort the science of and deflect attention away from the harmful effects of smoking.”