Footnotes

• Funding This work was supported by Senior Scientist Award DA-000490 (to JH) and grant R21 CA134817 (to TM) from the US National Institutes of Health.

• Competing interests JRH is currently employed by The University of Vermont and Fletcher Allen Health Care. Since 1/1/2007, he has received research grants from the National Institute on Health, and Pfizer; the latter develops and sells smoking cessation medications. During this time, he has accepted honoraria or consulting fees from several non-profit and for-profit organisations and companies that develop, sell or promote smoking cessation products or services or educate/advocate about smoking cessation: Abbot Pharmaceuticals, Acrux, Aradigm, American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, American Psychiatric Association, Begbies Traynor, Cline, Davis and Mann, Constella Group, Consultants in Behaviour Change, Dean Foundation, DLA Piper, EPI-Q, European Respiratory Society, Evotec, Exchange Limited, Fagerstrom Consulting, Free and Clear, GlaxoSmithKline, Golin Harris, Healthwise, Insyght, Informed, Invivodata, Johns Hopkins University, J L Reckner, Maine Medical Center, McNeil Pharmaceuticals, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Oglivy Health PR, Ottawa Heart Institute, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Pinney Associates, Reuters, Scientia, Temple University of Health Sciences, University of Arkansas, University of California-San Francisco, University of Cantabria, University of Kentucky, US National Institutes of Health and Xenova. TM has no disclosures. CS is employed by Fletcher Allen Health Care, who administers the VT In Person Program.

• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.