A task force has recommended that Virginia Commonwealth University extensively revise its policies governing research sponsored by corporations. The task force was convened in June after The New York Times reported that the university had entered into a secret agreement to conduct studies for Philip Morris USA, the tobacco giant.

The panel’s report, issued today, says that the university’s existing guidance document lacks sufficient detail for overseeing agreements between the university and industry.

The report recommends that faculty members retain the right to publish work and that the university must post notice of the agreements it reaches with sponsors of research. The report also calls on the university to stop entering into “research-services agreements,” which are distinct from grants and contracts and are defined as “projects that provide services involving analysis, evaluation, classification, diagnostics, or interpretation of a client’s data, samples, mechanisms, procedures, or products.”

The task force advised the university to set up a review committee for corporate-sponsored research that would include faculty members and would have to approve future requests to waive certain provisions of the policy. —Richard Monastersky