TobaccoTactics.org: a dynamic model of knowledge exchange to help academic research inform public health policy

For the past two years, in line with recommendations in WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG) at the University of Bath has been developing and applying a framework for monitoring the activities of the tobacco industry and its allies and their influence on UK health policy. In June 2012, the TCRG launched an innovative on line resource called TobaccoTactics. Using the same software as Wikipedia, TobaccoTactics provides timely up-to-date information on the tobacco industry and those working with it, sometimes covertly, and details their lobbying strategies and tactics.

The initial reception TobaccoTactics has received has been very positive. The number or hits the website has received has grown steadily. The research findings outlined on TobaccoTactics have been presented in different media and policy environments. These include a number of stories in the mainstream press, news articles in academic journals, presentations in the House of Commons and letters to newspapers. Collectively these efforts have, inter alinea, helped to reveal industry tactics and industry affiliated individuals and organisations seeking to undermine tobacco control policy to a wider audience than would have been reached via traditional academic outputs. For this, we have received praise across the public health community, including from WHO and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) who have both used TobaccoTactics.

The enthusiastic reception for TobaccoTactics has encouraged us to develop it further as a tool for disseminating findings from our extensive research on tobacco industry conduct. We believe TobaccoTactics can serve four main purposes. It will enable us to systematically store and retrieve our preliminary research findings in a way which enables us, over time, to analyse these initial findings in more depth to produce traditional academic papers. Simultaneously TobaccoTactics makes our preliminary findings publicly available so that they can contribute to important policy debates in a timely manner. Once our academic papers are published, it can serve as a means of disseminating their findings to a large audience. Finally, TobaccoTactics enables us to compile research findings in a way that is useful to policy-makers in a format which is not easily achieved via academic publications. For example, we compile in-depth profiles on individuals and organisations that feature in public health policy debates, identifying their links and funding sources.

As such, TobaccoTactics represents a new model of academic research dissemination. It specifically addresses a problem encountered in our research: that the policy process moves more quickly than the research and publication process. We now want to develop TobaccoTactics as an innovative way to disseminate contemporary research on tobacco industry conduct, ensuring it becomes the "go-to" website for those seeking information on the tobacco industry.

We want to increase the number of users and ensure that the pages with high relevance to policy makers receive greater traffic than they do at present. To achieve this end, we engaged a knowledge exchange expert to develop a detailed dissemination plan which is now ready to be operationalised. Building alliances with key individuals both in the UK and abroad is at the core of this plan, as is liaising with a large variety of stakeholders in public health policy, as well as using social media such as Twitter, blogging and newsletter updates.

With the UK Government's public consultation on plain packaging of cigarettes having recently closed and with the EU currently revising one of its key pieces of tobacco control legislation, the next two years are likely to see intense industry activity. This makes the project extremely timely.

There are now only eight World Health Organization (WHO) member states who have not signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the treaty aimed at reducing 'the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption'(38). Article 5.3 of the FCTC states: "In setting and implementing their public health policies with respect to tobacco control, Parties shall act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with national law." Parties to the FCTC agree there is a "fundamental and irreconcilable conflict" between tobacco industry interests and public health policy interests.

The research on TobaccoTactics describes tobacco industry activity, both past and present. The evidence reveals the industry's efforts to avoid or delay the regulation of tobacco via concerted efforts to influence the policy process. This occurs, via the use of third parties to make its messages more palatable(9), and via corporate social responsibility to restore its political capital(39, 40).

In light of Article 5.3 and given evidence that such research findings have played a key role in holding the tobacco industry accountable and in contributing to policy debates, this information is of significant relevance and use to our partner organisations. Our letters of support attest to the way the research provided has already been used to inform contemporary policy debates. A recent example of our work relates to the developments around plain packaging for tobacco products. We regularly update TobaccoTactics with information on the proposed packaging policy and we share these updates with our partner organisations, as well as to responding to ad hoc requests for research information. We offer a review of the quality of the evidence used to substantiate tobacco industry arguments against plain packaging and provide information on the individuals and organisations prominent in the debate, identifying who are linked to or acting as fronts for the tobacco industry. We follow plain packaging debates in Australia and publish developments which are relevant to others considering the policy, such as the European Commission, India, France, Belgium, Iceland, Ireland and New Zealand.

Our target audience and likely beneficiaries of our research are:
1. Partner Organisations: Cancer Research UK and Smokefree South West;
2. Other non-partner organisations: In the UK: FRESH North East, Tobacco Free Futures, Action for Smoking and Health. In Europe - Corporate Europe Observatory, Smoke-free Partnership;
3. Other non-partner health organisations; e.g. the Royal College of Physicians, Faculty of Public Health, British Medical Association;
4. Policy makers, including civil servants and politicians;
5. NGOs; e.g. British Heart Foundation, National Heart Forum;
6. Practitioners and health advocates; e.g. health promotion advisers, smoking cessation practitioners, trading standards and environmental health;
7. Media professionals;
8. Other academics;
9. The general public.

Our primary target audiences are in the UK, TobaccoTactics however has significant relevance to international audiences. Tobacco companies operate on a transnational scale, using similar strategies to avoid regulation, only adapting them to adjust to specific local or national circumstances. We currently exchange information with contacts in Europe and further afield in the US and Australia. The TCRG has Twitter followers from the EU, North America, Asia, Africa and Australia. One of our objectives is to expand the project to other countries, and to develop a manual for setting up TobaccoTactics wikis, coaching new teams, while sharing our knowledge on research, sourcing, ethics and legal risks.