The Ghosts of Journals Past.

This article focuses on the controversy concerning publisher Elsevier that emerged from a publishing venture in Australia. A civil suit was filed by consumer Graeme Peterson against Merck and its Australian subsidiary Merck, Sharp & Dohme Australia for the negative health effects while taking painkiller Vioxx from Merck. There are now questions on Merck's marketing strategy for the drug through a publication owned by Elsevier. An article on the Internet revealed that money was paid to Elsevier to publish papers favoring Vioxx.