An important message from the Editor, Ruth Malone on the Tobacco Control policy regarding publishing papers based on data submitted to regulatory agencies:

The rapid growth of funding for research to inform tobacco regulation in the United States and elsewhere has raised issues about how the journal handles materials that may have been submitted to a government agency before being published in the journal. Tobacco Control will consider for publication papers that have been or that are based on data that has been submitted to regulatory agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products as part of the public docket or in other forms. Such submission to government agencies, as with any related publications, should, however, be fully disclosed by the authors in the cover letter accompanying the manuscript when it is submitted for consideration. A planned submission of a manuscript to Tobacco Control should not cause delay in submission of important findings to regulatory agencies.