In the last few years the Beall's list - a list of predatory journals and publishers - maintained by a librarian from Denver USA, was referred to heavily, to understand how several journals were mushrooming under the guise of being Open Access, but were actually just making money and publishing mainly pseudoscience. There were arguments about the list - some claiming that Beall was going too far in  his judgements, but majority found the list to be a major source to check out about journals. The list suddenly vanished from the blog!   

Available at www.understandinghealthresearch.org - this tool guides you to review and interpret a pulished research paper, through a series of questions. Funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) UK, its evolution is well described in the website, and makes interesting reading. The aims of the tool are to:Allow lay and professional audiences to understand how to assess the quality of research evidenceRaise awareness of what evidence is and how it is generatedTeach or reaffirm critical health literacy skillsTake a research paper that you have with you. Go to the site, and answer questions they ask, as you read the paper. At the end,…