Elsevier, the world’s leading scientific publisher, said it had failed to meet its own standards for “accuracy and transparency” in producing a publication sponsored by Merck, the US pharmaceutical group, but presented as an independent academic journal.

The Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine, complete with an honorary editorial board of academics from Australia and New Zealand, contained a selection of reprinted articles from other journals concerning Merck’s medicines Fosamax and Vioxx, and no disclosure it was funded by the company.