Dr. Morteza Naghavi, lead author of the guidelines, sent letters soliciting aid to six drug companies. In the letters, which Naghavi supplied to the Globe, he writes that "the report will be distributed to 100,000 physicians worldwide."

Naghavi received a favorable response from Pfizer, whose funding of the report is noted in the journal. In an e-mailed answer to an inquiry from The Globe about its contribution, a company spokeswoman wrote that "Pfizer feels it is important to provide support for efforts that assess novel approaches to reduce the burden of heart disease."

The American Journal of Cardiology isn't the only scientific periodical that publishes supplements. But standards for those supplements vary, including whether they're underwritten by industry money. The highest-tier journals, including The New England Journal and The Journal of the American Medical Association, do not publish such supplements or accept cash to print recommendations.