The goal of the Tobacco Online Policy Seminar (TOPS) is to provide a free multidisciplinary, international forum for research using experimental or quasi-experimental variation (i.e., a well-defined counterfactual) to study nicotine-tobacco policies, with a particular focus on emerging tobacco products and modified risk tobacco products.
To maintain TOPS as a neutral, research-focused forum, we restrict presenters to those with a primary (and active) affiliation in academia, government, or at an independent research institute. All funding for the work being presented, and in the presenter’s recent history, must be disclosed. When disclosures reveal potential conflicts of interest, the Executive Board may require enhanced standards of research transparency — including, where applicable, data availability and reproducibility — as a condition of participation.
TOPS values submissions from all, but we also strive to create a diverse seminar series (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, LGBTQ, nation, academic discipline, professional rank). For a given presentation that involves multiple co-authors, please consider asking a co-author who helps our seminar series to achieve its diversity goals to be the presenter.