How to lie with *ahem* use numbers

This post linked to here is interesting from several perspectives.

Read as a cheat sheet for what not to do as a researcher - but maybe as a politician?...
... and a reminder of what to be on the lookout for when assessing the works and words of others.

Numbers have power, handle with care!

"Bad Science makes Big Headlines"...

We have been meaning to put this up for quite a while, since it is increasingly an issue. This specific post from Huffpost is from back in February, but is an ongoing issue and has been from time immemorial.

It is a very nice little piece on critical thinking in academic, journalistic and everyday life.

"... neither academic publishing nor scientific journalism are immune to misleading headlines and invalid findings. If journalists can be fooled by bogus or simply bad science, how is a layperson supposed to sort out the hype from the help?"

The author Steven N. Austad goes on to present six down to earth tips on how to discriminate muck and treasure.

Have a read!

Get more help on information skills, critical thinking and source evaluation included ;)

How to read health news

A nice article from NHS Choices outlining the basics of critically reading health articles in the news:

http://www.nhs.uk/news/Pages/Howtoreadarticlesabouthealthandhealthcare.aspx.

There are links to further useful sites on our EBDM & Research page at http://libguides.hull.ac.uk/medicine/EBDM.