A number of years ago, I came across an article about vitamin B12 in the journal Blood, which is a specialty journal for hematologists. The following notation appeared in small print at the bottom of the first page: “The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge payments. This article must therefore be marked ‘advertisement’ in accordance with 18 U.S.C. section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.”1 The law to which this notation referred stated, “Whoever, being an editor or publisher, prints in a publication entered as second class mail, editorial or other reading matter for which he has been paid or promised a valuable consideration, without plainly marking the same ‘advertisement’ shall be fined under this title.”
The US Postal Service no longer has a category of second class mail, so the regulation listed in 18 U.S.C. section 1734 no longer applies. However, the practice of researchers or their sponsors paying journals to publish their papers (typically in open-access journals or in supplements to journals) has become widespread. Which raises the question, to what extent should these papers be considered promotional pieces (i.e., advertisements), as opposed to educational or scientific articles?
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