Reed Elsevier may have thought that by keeping its head down controversy over its involvement in arms fairs would go away, but not so. Richard Smith, formerly editor of the British Medical Journal has written a strongly worded attack on the STM publisher calling for scientists to boycott their titles.

His article Reed Elsevier's hypocrisy in selling arms and health is to be published in the March edition of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (JRMS). Smith calls for scientists to find other homes for their research papers in an effort that he hopes will push Reed to stop organising arms fairs in Brazil, Britain, the Middle East and the US.

Smith calls for a boycott focussed on The Lancet in particular, "The Lancet itself has told us how the fairs have in the past included cluster bombs, which are especially dangerous to civilians because they fail to explode and create minefields."

"What might be the actions of the editors, authors and readers of not only The Lancet, but also the other 2000 medical and scientific journals published Reed Elsevier? Alone they might achieve little, but together they might force the company to change, not by appealing to its non-existent conscience, but through threatening its business," he says in a rallying call for a boycott. Adding, "The scientific and medical part of the business is so profitable because of the extraordinary value of the science it publishes. This is where Reed Elsevier is vulnerable – were those researchers to go elsewhere, the company would promptly pull out of arms exhibitions."

JRSM's editor, Dr Kamran Abbasi, editor added, "The editors of The Lancet have in the past taken a brave stance against Reed Elsevier's involvement in promoting arms sales. But it seems that larger profits matter more to the company than its reputation among the scientific community. It is unlikely that the editorial team of The Lancet will be able to change Reed Elsevier's behaviour alone. The wider scientific community that it relies on to make those profits, however, can form a powerful lobby."