While some universities have decided to shun research grants from tobacco companies — or, like the University of California, insisted on unusually high standards of disclosure when accepting such grants — Virginia Commonwealth University is among those that have taken the opposite tack. Not only does it continue to take such money but it is also allowing the sponsor, Philip Morris USA, to shroud the research in secrecy.

The contract for the research projects, according to today’s New York Times, bars professors from publishing the results of their studies, or even talking about them, without Philip Morris’s permission. Both the company and the university are based in Richmond, Va. The research involves studies of how to identify early warning signs of pulmonary disease, and ways to keep nitrogen and phosphorus from tobacco-leaf processing from draining into rivers.

“There is restrictive language in here,” said Francis L. Macrina, Virginia Commonwealth’s vice president for research, according to the Times. He also acknowledged that many provisions of the contract violated the university’s guidelines for industry-sponsored research. “In the end, it was language we thought we could agree to. It’s a balancing act.”

The company said it had similar arrangements with other universities but declined to identify them to the newspaper. —Goldie Blumenstyk