PLoS medicine
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Geoff Spurling and colleagues report findings of a systematic review looking at the relationship between exposure to promotional material from pharmaceutical companies and the quality, quantity, and cost of prescribing. They fail to find evidence of improvements in prescribing after exposure, and find some evidence of an association with higher prescribing frequency, higher costs, or lower prescribing quality.
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As part of the PLoS Epigenetics Collection, Caroline Relton and George Davey Smith discuss the potential of epigenetics for the treatment and prevention of common complex diseases, including cancer.
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transparency in reporting of conflict of interest is an increasingly important aspect of publication in medical journals. Publication of large industry-supported trials may generate many citations and journal income through reprint sales and thereby be a source of conflicts of interest for journals. We investigated industry-supported trials' influence on journal impact factors and revenue. ⋯ publication of industry-supported trials was associated with an increase in journal impact factors. Sales of reprints may provide a substantial income. We suggest that journals disclose financial information in the same way that they require them from their authors, so that readers can assess the potential effect of different types of papers on journals' revenue and impact.
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The PLoS Medicine editors discuss further the paper by Peter Gøtzsche and colleagues on journals' competing interests. The editorial reinforces the call by Harvey Marcovitch for journals to be transparent and thus discloses PLoS Medicine's sources of income for 2009.
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Colin Josephson, Rustam Al-Shahi Salman, and colleagues discuss the effectiveness of treatments for intracerebral haemorrhage.