REVIEW
Tobacco document research reporting
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Stacy M Carter
Room 129A Building A27, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; carters{at}health.usyd.edu.au
Objective: To understand the use of internal tobacco industry documents in the peer reviewed health literature.
Design: Interpretive analysis of published research.
Sample: 173 papers indexed in Medline between 1995 and 2004 that cited tobacco industry documents.
Analysis: Information about year published, journal and author, and a set of codes relating to methods reporting, were managed in N*Vivo. This coding formed the basis of an interpretation of tobacco document research reporting.
Results: Two types of papers were identified. The first used tobacco documents as the primary data source (A-papers). The second was dedicated to another purpose but cited a small number of documents (B-papers). In B-papers documents were used either to provide a specific example or to support an expansive contention. A-papers contained information about purpose, sources, searching, analysis, and limitations that differed by author and journal and over time. A-papers had no clear methodological context, but used words from three major traditionsinterpretive research, positivist research, and historyto describe analysis.
Interpretation: A descriptive mainstream form of tobacco document reporting is proposed, initially typical but decreasing, and a continuum of positioning of the researcher, from conduit to constructor. Reporting practices, particularly from experienced researchers, appeared to evolve towards researcher as constructor, with later papers showing more complex purposes, diverse sources, and detail of searching and analysis. Tobacco document research could learn from existing research traditions: a model for planning and evaluating tobacco document research is presented.
Abbreviations: AJPH, American Journal of Public Health; BAT, British American Tobacco; DA, discourse analysis; NTR, Nicotine and Tobacco Research; TC, Tobacco Control; TDR, tobacco document research
Keywords: review; tobacco industry documents; research design
![]()
CiteULike
Complore
Connotea
Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Cook, D. M., Bero, L. A.
(2009). The Politics of Smoking in Federal Buildings: An Executive Order Case Study. AJPH
99: 1588-1595
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Freeman, B, Chapman, S
(2009). Open source marketing: Camel cigarette brand marketing in the "Web 2.0" world. Tobacco Control
18: 212-217
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Kreslake, J. M., Wayne, G. F., Alpert, H. R., Koh, H. K., Connolly, G. N.
(2008). Tobacco Industry Control of Menthol in Cigarettes and Targeting of Adolescents and Young Adults. AJPH
98: 1685-1692
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Anderson, S J, Ling, P M
(2008). "And they told two friends...and so on": RJ Reynolds' viral marketing of Eclipse and its potential to mislead the public. Tobacco Control
17: 222-229
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Prochaska, J. J., Hall, S. M., Bero, L. A.
(2008). Tobacco Use Among Individuals With Schizophrenia: What Role Has the Tobacco Industry Played?. Schizophr Bull
34: 555-567
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
McDaniel, P. A, Malone, R. E
(2007). "I always thought they were all pure tobacco": American smokers' perceptions of "natural" cigarettes and tobacco industry advertising strategies. Tobacco Control
16: e7-e7
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Smith, E. A., Malone, R. E.
(2007). 'We will speak as the smoker': the tobacco industry's smokers' rights groups. Eur J Public Health
17: 306-313
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Smith, E. A.
(2007). 'It's interesting how few people die from smoking': Tobacco industry efforts to minimize risk and discredit health promotion. Eur J Public Health
17: 162-170
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Lopipero, P., Bero, L. A
(2006). Tobacco interests or the public interest: 20 years of industry strategies to undermine airline smoking restrictions.. Tobacco Control
15: 323-332
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Anderson, S J, Dewhirst, T, Ling, P M
(2006). Every document and picture tells a story: using internal corporate document reviews, semiotics, and content analysis to assess tobacco advertising. Tobacco Control
15: 254-261
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Balbach, E D, Barbeau, E M
(2005). Beyond quagmires: the evolving quality of documents research. Tobacco Control
14: 361-362
[Full Text]
eLetters:
Read all eLetters
- A major contribution to TDR methodology
- Heikki T Hiilamo
- Tobacco Control Online, 17 Dec 2005 [Full text]
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
