Advertising and sponsorship are important to us in helping us to provide value for our users. These guidelines are to ensure we do business in keeping with BMJ Group values. Our users and customers rely on BMJ Group to be trustworthy, independent and to have integrity. Our approach to advertising and sponsorship supports that expectation. We do not allow advertising or sponsorship to influence editorial decisions, and all decisions about what advertising to take and what content to publish are made independently of considerations of the other.

Our approach

• We accept advertising for products and services that are of interest to users in their personal and as well as their professional lives. Please note that we accept advertising and sponsorship from competitors.
• We accept various forms of advertising from organisations to advertise products, events or services. Advertising can be purchased directly from BMJ Group’s sales team or via programmatic channels.
• Advertisements and sponsorship must be legal, decent and truthful and comply with the relevant laws, regulations and industry codes for the geographic area in which they appear.
• If environmental claims are made then these should be in keeping with the Green Claim code of the UK government.
• Advertisements for products making therapeutic or diagnostic claims but without marketing authorisation or CE marking (or local equivalent), should be submitted for review by BMJ Group with all claims substantiated by results presented in full length research papers published in peer reviewed journals.
• We do NOT accept advertising or sponsorship that meets the following criteria
  • from the tobacco industry for tobacco products, vaping products, or products and services from tobacco companies, their wholly owned foundations or owned subsidiaries
  • advertising breast milk substitutes 
  • from companies that produce or fund fossil fuels, such as banks 
  • from gambling or betting companies
  • from the arms industry
• Advertising and sponsorship are subject to editorial oversight by the Editorial Director of BMJ Journals. We reserve the right to accept and reject advertising and sponsorship proposals. If a proposal is refused for reasons outside these guidelines, BMJ Group will provide that reason.

Advertisement display

• Our users need to be able to immediately distinguish between advertising and editorial content
• Sponsored content must be clearly identifiable
• Advertising and sponsorship should be delivered in context
• The nature of any commercial relationship must be transparent to our users
• Advertisement features must conform to BMJ Group specifications [Contact us to request specifications]
• Surreptitious or subliminal advertising is not allowed
• Online advertising or sponsorship must not impede users’ access to editorial content

Raising concerns

If you believe that an advertisement is in breach of general advertising standards, please contact the advertiser directly. If there is no response you can contact your national regulator, such as the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority. Please copy complaints@bmj.com so that we can consider whether to accept future, similar advertisements.

If you believe that an advertisement is in breach of BMJ Group’s advertising policy please contact us by emailing complaints@bmj.com. Please state what advertisement is causing concern (provide an image or link) and which journal/s it is published in to the best of your knowledge. If relevant, please state whether it is an online advertisement and/or in print.

Generally, this will result in one of four outcomes:

1. We may confirm that the advertising complies with our policy and does not require any changes
2. We may ask the advertiser to change the wording of the advertisement before carrying it again
3. We may refuse to carry advertising for the product in future
4. We may escalate the complaint with the advertiser or with the relevant advertising standards authority

In general, we will communicate the outcome of the investigation to the person who raised the concern.

Last modified: April 2025