BMJ is owned by Reed Elsevier, the same Dutch/International company that set up fake journals in Australia in order to promote Merck drugs. It owns 25% of all medical journals and a lot of other publications, from Variety to NexisLexis (the online law publication). He seems to exercise a heavy hand in promoting or restricting what gets published. Some scientific Journals have disbanded because of lack of "independence".
From wikipedia: blue underlining from wiki)
" Operations
Reed Elsevier conducts its business through the following divisions:
ScienceDirect contains over 25% of the world's science, technology and medicine full text and bibliographic information.
Scopus is the world's largest abstract and citation database of research literature and quality web sources. Scopus is updated daily.
Reed Business, Reed Elsevier's global Business division, is a provider of magazines, exhibitions, directories, online media and marketing services across five continents. Its prestige brands serve professionals across a diverse range of industries. These brands include
Variety,
New Scientist, totaljobs.com,
Elsevier,
Kellysearch, and the World Travel & Tourism Market.
Pricing issues
Main articles:
Elsevier#Criticism and controversies and
Elsevier
Reed Elsevier has been criticised for the high prices of its journals and services, especially Elsevier and LexisNexis.
Members of the scientific community have called for a boycott of Elsevier journals and a move to open access publications such as those of the Public Library of Science or BioMed Central."