Intended for healthcare professionals
Resources for advertisers and sponsors
Why advertise with BMJ?
At BMJ we know the healthcare professional audience better than anyone. With interaction throughout the day on our websites, on the move with mobile and a more relaxed read at the weekend in print, our tools help healthcare professionals support their decisions, interpret clinical data and improve the quality of healthcare delivery. You can find out more at our company advertising pages. Use our expertise and let us guide you. We offer:
• Extensive targeting options help you to reach your preferred audience.
• The latest digital technologies to attract and engage our readers.
• Years of experience from our BMJ dedicated sales team, creating tailored advertising packages for satisfied customers.
Contact us today through our dedicated advertising pages.
BMJ advertising and sponsorship guidelines
Advertising and sponsorship are important to BMJ in helping us to provide value for our users. These guidelines are to ensure we do business in keeping with BMJ values. Our users and customers expect BMJ to be trustworthy, independent and to have integrity. Our advertising and sponsorship should support that expectation.
• BMJ accepts advertising for products and services that are of interest to users in their personal and as well as professional lives. 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.
• Our users should immediately be able to distinguish between advertising and editorial content. Advertisement features need to conform to BMJ specifications.
• Advertisements for products making therapeutic claims but without marketing authorisation or CE marking (or local equivalent), should be submitted with all claims substantiated in full length research papers published in peer reviewed journals.
• Sponsored content should be clearly identifiable. The nature of any commercial relationship must be transparent to our users. Advertising and sponsorship should be delivered in context. Surreptitious or subliminal advertising is not allowed.
• BMJ does not allow advertising or sponsorship to influence editorial decisions.
• Online advertising or sponsorship should not impede users’ access to editorial content.
• We accept advertising and sponsorship from competitors.
• We do not accept advertising or sponsorship relating to tobacco products, or to products and services from tobacco companies, their foundations, or their wholly owned subsidiaries.
• From February 2019, The BMJ will no longer accept new advertisements for breast milk substitutes.
• Advertising and sponsorship are subject to editorial oversight. BMJ's editor-in-chief reserves the right to accept and reject advertising and sponsorship proposals. If a proposal is refused for reasons outside these guidelines, the editor-in-chief will provide an explanation.
(Last updated Feb 2019)
Complaints
You are also welcome to contact BMJ by emailing complaints@bmj.com. Generally, this will result in one of four outcomes:
1. We may confirm that the advertising complies with our guidance 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.
Should you wish to send a rapid response/letter to the editor about an advertisement carried in The BMJ, you can do so by leaving a response to the most recent Editor's Choice here.
