The New York Times reported last week that the company paid $51,000 to sponsor the special edition of the journal, including a $6,500 open-access fee to make it freely available to the public. Three editorial board members resigned over the arrangement.
The e-cigarette company Juul Labs funded a special issue of the American Journal of Health Behavior, which dedicated its entire May/June issue to 11 articles authored by Juul scientists or contractors that on the whole found reductions in adult smoking rates as smokers switched to electronic nicotine products.
The 11 research articles published in the American Journal of Health Behavior’s “special issue on JUUL use” were authored by researchers who at the time the studies were conducted were employed by Juul laboratories or consulting or research groups that contract with the company. All the studies were funded by Juul Labs Inc.
The scientist — who was not named — shared an email with the Inquirer that the journal’s editor in chief, Elbert Glover, sent to potential reviewers that did not note Juul’s sponsorship and that offered $75 to reviewers if they could turn a review around in one week. The manuscripts themselves redacted the sponsor’s name.
