The team at King's College London say smokers are more likely to develop the disorder and at a younger age.
Published in the Lancet Psychiatry, their analysis of 61 separate studies suggests nicotine in cigarette smoke may be altering the brain.
Experts said it was a "pretty strong case" but needed more research.
Smoking has long been associated with psychosis, but it has often been believed that schizophrenia patients are more likely to smoke because they use cigarettes as a form of self-medication to ease the distress of hearing voices or having hallucinations.
The team at King's looked at data involving 14,555 smokers and 273,162 non-smokers.
It indicated:
The argument is that if there is a higher rate of smoking before schizophrenia is diagnosed, then smoking is not simply a case of self-medication.
Dr James MacCabe, from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's, said: "It's very difficult to establish causation [with this style of study], what we're hoping that this does is really open our eyes to the possibility that tobacco could be a causative agent in psychosis, and we hope this will then lead to other research and clinical trials that would help to provide firmer evidence."
Clearly most smokers do not develop schizophrenia, but the researchers believe it is increasing the risk.
The overall incidence of the condition is one in every 100 people normally, which may be increased to two per 100 by smoking.
The researchers said nicotine altered levels of the brain chemical dopamine, which has already been implicated in the psychosis.
Prof Michael Owen, the director of the Institute of Psychological Medicine at Cardiff University, said the researchers had made a "pretty strong case" that smoking may increase the risk of schizophrenia.
"The fact is that it is very hard to prove causation without a randomised trial, but there are plenty of good reasons already for targeting public health measures very energetically at the mentally ill."
The charity Rethink Mental Illness said: "We know that 42% of all cigarettes smoked in England are by people with mental health problems, and so any new findings about the link between smoking and psychosis is a potential worry.
"However, longer-term studies are needed to fully understand this potential link."

The planned voluntary rules would cover "integrated electronic devices, including mobile phones".
Officials want distracting functions to be disabled when driving.
In 2010, US figures suggested that "distraction by a device or control integral to the vehicle was reported in 26,000 crashes".
Thenew proposals include goals to reduce the amountof inputs required to operate a device - the number of buttons to push - and reducing unnecessary visual information.
There are also guidelines requiring one-handed operation and a two second limit on "off-road glances" - the time spent looking at the device.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also wants built-in gadgets the driver can use to turn-off non-essential functions while the car is moving, and keep them disabled until the car is parked.
In particular they want to prevent manual texting, use of the internet/social media, entering addresses into sat navs and dialling long phone numbers.
Displaying more than 30 characters of text not related to driving should also be prevented, it says.
Electronic warning systems would be exempt from the rules, the NHTSA said.
The first phase of the plans only apply to built-in devices.
However, the NHTSA said that in later phases it might issue further guidelines on the use of "devices or systems that are not built into the vehicle but are brought into the vehicle and used while driving".
This could include "navigation systems, smartphones, electronic tablets and pads, and other mobile communications devices".
Official figures suggested that in 2010 electronic devices were involved in 47,000 distraction-related crashes.
NHTSA administrator David Strickland said consumers wanted more "tools and conveniences" but said the guidelines would help carmakers "develop electronic devices that provide features consumers want - without disrupting a driver's attention or sacrificing safety".
The NHTSA is currently consulting on the first phase of the proposals.
Smoking could play a direct role in the development of schizophrenia and needs to be investigated, researchers say.
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US transport safety officials have proposed guidelines to limit driver distraction from gadgets built into cars.