There is another way of checking if a site is accredited. HON have created toolbar widgets for browsers that light up when the browser is visiting a HON-accredited site.
Here's what it looks like when visiting Patient.co.uk
and here's what it looks like when visiting Dr Nancy Malik's Science-based Homeopathy site
If you look for the blue and red icon on the right the difference is clear.
The website, Science-based Homeopathy, is not accredited by Health on the Net - though it was previously.
Health on the Net's certificate for Dr Malik's website currently says 'invalid' in bright red letters: https://www.healthonnet.org/HONcode/Conduct.html?HONConduct822331
Interestingly Dr Malik (or her webmaster) has removed the badge from her website and replaced it with the picture below. The text of the link on her site is 'verify here' which implies that visitors clicking that link will be able to check the validity of the certificate.
In fact visitors are now taken to a screenshot of the earlier certificate (when the site was still validated). The screenshot is hosted on Google, not Health on the Net and so is not 'live' as a valid certificate.
The person running this website (it may not be Dr Malik) appears to have removed a now-invalid certificate in order to replace it with an older once-valid copy to give the impression that the site is still certificated. Perhaps this is an honest mistake and not done deliberately but now that so many have pointed this out it seems strange for the error not to have been fixed.
In short, Dr Nancy Malik's website 'Science-based Homeopathy' has lost its HONCode certification.
Strangely, the site also hosts a blog and one of the posts* attempts to explain this away. The old certificate is shown on the post and the text around it implies that re-certification is imminent after a short audit period. This seems to be quite unlikely.
During the audit period HON did not rescind the certificate but instead stated that it was under review ('re-exam'). The fact that it has now been changed to 'invalid' strongly suggests that the audit period has finished and that there will be no re-certification unless significant changes are made on the website to bring it in line with the HON Code. However, the strange behaviour regarding the way the real (invalid) certificate has been obscured on the site doesn't really suggest that this site would be trusted again in future.
*http://drnancymalik.wordpress.com/2014/07/01/honcode-certificaton/
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I take exception to the word "mistaken". In the circumstances, it is hard to believe that Malik is in good faith. The word to use is therefore not "mistakenly" but "dishonestly".
ReplyDeleteIt is possible that she is not making these changes to her site. I think it's always best to assume - it not good faith - that someone possibly doesn't really know quite what they're doing, or doesn't understand the consequences of what they're doing.
DeleteThat is exceptionally generous of you, Jo.
DeleteGiven that one would have to go into the code snippet I assume was provided by HONcode and fudge it, I find it difficult to believe that whomever did this was not aware of the consequences of their actions.
Whoever's done it doesn't seem to have tweaked the code snippet, more removed it and replaced it with a bit of text and some links to a picture hosted elsewhere. In fact it's conceptually similar to the small pictorial advert I have up there that goes to the site for Made in Dagenham the musical, and also for the Open Air cinema screenings which just goes to another page on this site.
DeleteIf you scroll right to the bottom of http://www.patient.co.uk/ you'll see a widget picture which points to their valid certificate (I don't know if they used a bit of code or just added a hyperlinked picture) but however it's achieved as we all know - Nancy's site has lost its certificate.
In fact you don't even need to click on it if you have the HONcode toolbar enabled, which I set up before writing this piece to be absolutely certain, from two separate pieces of evidence, that Nancy Malik's Science-based Homeopathy website is in breach of the HONcode.