Last month, a group of 16 physicians, scientists and representatives of anti-arms trade groups accused The Lancet of being "connected to the profits of the global arms trade." In a letter to the 182-year old journal, which has repeatedly drawn attention to the devastating health consequences of war, the correspondents – including Gene Feder from Barts and the London Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, UK – noted that Reed Elsevier, which has owned The Lancet since 1991, also owns a company that runs the Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEi), the world's biggest triservice arms fair.

The letter was organized by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), a London-based group whose representative Anna Jones was a co-signatory. In around the second week of August, CAAT began contacting other campaigning groups, medical charities and public health scientists alerting them to the link, says Mike Lewis, spokesman for the...