Stephen Joel Barrett (/ˈbærɪt/; born 1933) is an American retired psychiatrist, author, co-founder of the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF), and the webmaster of Quackwatch.

[5] In addition to webmastering his websites, Barrett was a co-founder, vice-president and a board member of the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF).

Barrett was the consulting editor for the Consumer Health Library at Prometheus Books,[6] and has been a peer-review panelist for [7] two[8][9][10] medical journals.

[18] The magazine Spiked included Barrett in a survey of 134 persons[19] they termed "key thinkers in science, technology and medicine.

[21]The Quackwatch website is Barrett's main platform for describing and exposing what he and other contributors consider to be quackery and health fraud.

[22] The website was part of Quackwatch, Inc., a nonprofit corporation founded by Barrett that aims to "combat health-related frauds, myths, fads, fallacies, and misconduct."

[23] Barrett's writing is supplemented with contributions from many scientific, technical, and lay volunteers and includes numerous references to published research articles.

[27][31] Donna Ladd, a journalist with The Village Voice, says Barrett relies mostly on negative research to criticize alternative medicine, rejecting most positive case studies as unreliable due to methodological flaws.

"[27] Both website reviews[32][33][34][35][36] and various journal articles[37][38][39][40][41][42] mention or use as references Stephen Barrett's Quackwatch as a useful source for consumer information.