In an interesting move, the IET has decided to allow advertising in its academic journals. The decision provides advertisers with access to 16 titles that previously were referred to as IEE Proceedings as well as Electronic Letters and Micro & Nano Letters. With subscriptions for these titles running to several hundred pounds, much of the circulation will be to libraries – particularly within universities. Although this move is interesting, we would expect that for most companies the academic audience will not be seen as important, even if the ads will have a long shelf-life, with journals likely to be used in research for years to come.