Merck paid medical publisher Elsevier to publish a few volumes of Merck-favored research with the appearance of a serious peer-reviewed journal.

Instead, the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine was in effect just company-sponsored marketing material without the sponsorship disclosure.

While the serious ethical breach by Merck is receiving much attention, I'd like to draw attention also to the bizarre ethical breach by the publisher.

Elsevier has a reputation as a serious publisher of peer-reviewed science, technical and medical journals. It knew that by attaching its name to this journal it would lead people into assuming that the same standards would apply to the information and views it contained.

Elsevier has a responsibility for its mind print. The information that it publishes can and will be taken and used for better or worse. Elsevier's corporate social responsibility page, however, prefers to talk about philanthropic and environmental initiatives.

Time for them to re-center on why they exist. Clue: it was not to squeeze an extra bit of revenue out of their brand by lending credence to Merck's blindingly unethical misstep.