Useful Resource: the Bad Science Activism Forum

I've been pointed to a very helpful resource for activism and complaint-making (thanks, Suzy!). The forum at the Bad Science website, run by Guardian science writer Ben Goldacre, has an Activism board. As well as how-tos for making complaints to several regulatory bodies, the board has many threads with suggested actions to take, encouragement and discussion on blogging and writing to fix things. The topics are of course skewed towards "bad science" (a selection from the front page of threads includes discussion of detox, vaccination and the British Chiropractic Association vs. Simon Singh) but the advice could be used in any area.

The board is admittedly UK-centric. How-to guides (stickied at the top of the page) include:

• Complaining to OFCOM, for TV and radio broadcasts
• Complaining to the MHRA drugs rep, about medicines and medical advertising
• Writing a complaint to the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA)
• Tips and useful contact details for writing letters to newspapers
• Making a request under the Freedom of Information Act. (Another good resource for making FOI requests is WhatDoTheyKnow.)