I don't think it is a case of talking about harmful actions, but making sure if we're going to act on research, we understand the research methodologies and their weakness... and that if we're working towards solutions and needing to do research to understand a problem in order to do something, we talk about best research practices for conducting that research. :) A lot of people, especially in a grant funding context, may need research to validate their willingness to fund action. This is when things matter A LOT. Listening to what those people tells you is even more important. My government contacts ask ROI for investing on Wikipedia and I say page views. They say not good enough: Develop a new metric. Thus, I do.
On a side note for interesting data I've come across.... I was telling some one that page views matter and one of the reasons I like English Wikinews more than editing English Wikipedia is you can see an immediate result and impact by covering a topic that gets little coverage. I went to look at the numbers as I've been working rather hard on Australian water polo news this month.
This is the following list of articles I have ever written about the Australian women's national water polo team and their page views on English Wikinews for the past 30 days:
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Australian_Stingers_stung_by_US_at_FINA_World_League_Final_gold_medal_match - 1340 views
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Australian_women_to_meet_USA_in_water_polo%27s_FINA_Women%27s_World_League_Super_Finals_gold_medal_game - 1527 views
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Australia_women%27s_water_polo_team_into_FINA_Women%27s_World_League_Super_Finals_semi_finals - 1212 views
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Australia_women%27s_water_polo_team_into_FINA_Women%27s_World_League_Super_Finals_quarter_finals - 1274 views
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Australian_women_win_VISA_Water_Polo_International - 468 views
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Australian_women%27s_water_polo_team_takes_test_series_against_Great_Britain - 263 views
Compare that to the Wikipedia article about the team:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_women%27s_national_water_polo_team - 1207 views
If I include every article about the national team, I get closer to those Wikinews totals:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoe_Arancini - 195 views
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemma_Beadsworth - 469 views
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowena_Webster - 367 views
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holly_Lincoln-Smith - 357 times
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronwen_Knox - 358 views
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Gynther - 271 views
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Buckling - 221 views
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Brown_(water_polo) - 315 views
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isobel_Bishop - 351 views
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alicia_McCormack - 320 views
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Moran - 258 views
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glencora_Ralph - 225 views
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Rippon - 242 views
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Smith - 323 views
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashleigh_Southern - 230 views
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelsey_Wakefield - 168 views
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicola_Zagame - 447 views
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_McFadden - 162 views
6,486 total views spread out across 19 articles compared to roughly 5,700 views spread out across six articles. I love my Wikipedia work, but it feels better recognised and, at times, more lasting on Wikinews than Wikipedia. As some one writing about women, there are just more ways and easier ways to do this on Wikinews, plus more page views and original research.