WRITER

Ben Goldacre

1974 - Today

Photo of Ben Goldacre

Icon of person Ben Goldacre

Ben Michael Goldacre (born 20 May 1974) is a British physician, academic and science writer. He is the first Bennett Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine and director of the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science at the University of Oxford. He is a founder of the AllTrials campaign and OpenTrials to require open science practices in clinical trials.Goldacre is known in particular for his Bad Science column in The Guardian, which he wrote between 2003 and 2011, and is the author of four books: Bad Science (2008), a critique of irrationality and certain forms of alternative medicine; Bad Pharma (2012), an examination of the pharmaceutical industry, its publishing and marketing practices, and its relationship with the medical profession; I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That, a collection of his journalism; and Statins, about evidence-based medicine. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Ben Goldacre has received more than 525,217 page views. His biography is available in 16 different languages on Wikipedia. Ben Goldacre is the 7,272nd most popular writer (down from 6,455th in 2019), the 8,006th most popular biography from United Kingdom (down from 7,027th in 2019) and the 756th most popular British Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 530k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 23.87

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 16

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 1.64

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.39

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Bad Science
Popular works, Science, Scientific Errors
Full of spleen, this will be a hilarious, invigorating and informative journey through the world of Bad Science.When Dr Ben Goldacre saw someone on daytime TV dipping her feet in an 'Aqua Detox' footbath, releasing her toxins into the water, turning it brown, he thought he'd try the same at home. 'Like some kind of Johnny Ball cum Witchfinder General', using his girlfriend's Barbie doll, he gently passed an electrical current through the warm salt water. It turned brown. In his words: 'before my very eyes, the world's first Detox Barbie was sat, with her feet in a pool of brown sludge, purged of a weekend's immorality.'Dr Ben Goldacre is the author of the Bad Science column in the Guardian. This book will be about all the 'bad science' we are constantly bombarded with in the media and in advertising. At a time when science is used to prove everything and nothing, everyone has their own 'bad science' moments - from the useless pie-chart on the back of cereal packets to the use of the word 'visibly' in cosmetics ads. This book will help people to quantify their instincts - that a lot of the so-called 'science' which appears in the media and in advertising is just wrong or misleading. It will be satirical and amusing - exposing the ridiculous - but it will also provide the reader with the facts they need.Full of spleen, this will be a hilarious, invigorating and informative journey through the world of Bad Science.
2008
Bad Pharma: How Medicine is Broken, and How We Can Fix it
Pharmaceutical industry, Medical errors, Medication abuse
We like to imagine that medicine is based on evidence and the results of fair tests. In reality, those tests are often profoundly flawed. We like to imagine that doctors are familiar with the research literature about a drug, when in reality much of the research is hidden from them by drug companies. We like to imagine that doctors are impartially educated, when in reality much of their education is funded by the pharmaceutical industry. We like to imagine that regulators let only effective drugs onto the market, when in reality they approve useless drugs, with data on side effects casually withheld from doctors and patients. All these problems have been shielded from public scrutiny because they're too complex to capture in a sound bite. But Ben Goldacre shows that the true scale of this murderous disaster fully reveals itself only when the details are untangled. He believes we should all be able to understand precisely how data manipulation works and how research misconduct on a global scale affects us. This book reveals a shockingly broken system and calls for something to be done.--From publisher description.
2001
Statins
Cardiovascular agents
2019
I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That
Science, popular works, Medicine, popular, Science
2014
Do Statins Work?
Cardiovascular agents
2019
Bad pharma
pharmaceutical industry, science, medicine
2012

Page views of Ben Goldacres by language

Over the past year Ben Goldacre has had the most page views in the with 44,471 views, followed by French (1,285), and Russian (1,235). In terms of yearly growth of page views the top 3 wikpedia editions are Malayalam (78.79%), Esperanto (51.63%), and Egyptian Arabic (44.10%)

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Ben Goldacre ranks 7,272 out of 7,302. Before him are Geoffrey S. Fletcher, Silvio Horta, Fatima Bhutto, Anupama Chopra, Jed Whedon, and Owen Jones. After him are G. Willow Wilson, Debora Patta, Maajid Nawaz, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Pierce Brown, and Taiye Selasi.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1974, Ben Goldacre ranks 1,129. Before him are André Carson, Arianne Zucker, Malik Rose, Misbah-ul-Haq, Jennifer Jones, and Makoto Segawa. After him are Shannon Johnson, Joaquin Castro, Michael Peca, Chaminda Vaas, Ryuji Okada, and Jason Arnott.

Others Born in 1974

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Ben Goldacre ranks 8,006 out of 8,785. Before him are Oliver Rowland (1992), Chris Birchall (1984), Cameron Carter-Vickers (1997), Nick Powell (1994), Janice Rankin (1972), and Keira Walsh (1997). After him are Zoella (1990), Kimberley Walsh (1981), Megan Prescott (1991), Jack Cutmore-Scott (1987), Cameron Jerome (1986), and Kelly Sotherton (1976).

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Among WRITERS In United Kingdom

Among writers born in United Kingdom, Ben Goldacre ranks 756. Before him are Abi Morgan (1968), Rebekah Brooks (1968), Simon Armitage (1963), Conor Maynard (1992), Julie Bindel (1962), and Owen Jones (1984). After him are Maajid Nawaz (1977), Taiye Selasi (1979), and Lyra McKee (1990).

British born Writers

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