A protocol for co-creating research project lay summaries with stakeholders: guideline development for Canada’s AGE-WELL network

Abstract

Background: Funding bodies increasingly require researchers to write lay summaries to communicate projects' real-world relevance to the public in an accessible way. However, research proposals and findings are generally not easily readable or understandable by non-specialist readers. Many researchers find writing lay summaries difficult because they typically write for fellow subject specialists or academics rather than the general public or a nonspecialist audience. The primary objective of our project is to develop guidelines for researchers in Canada's AGE-WELL Network of Centres of Excellence, and ultimately various other disciplines, sectors, and institutions, to cocreate lay summaries of research projects with stakeholders. To begin, we produced a protocol for co-creating a lay summary based on workshops we organized and facilitated for an AGE-WELL researcher. This paper presents the lay summary co-creation protocol that AGE-WELL researchers will be invited to use. Methods: Eligible participants in this project will be 24 AgeTech project researchers who are funded by the AGE-WELL network in its Core Research Program 2020. If they agree to participate in this project, we will invite them to use our protocol to co-produce a lay summary of their respective projects with stakeholders. The protocol comprises six steps: Investigate principles of writing a good lay summary, identify the target readership, identify stakeholders to collaborate with, recruit the identified stakeholders to work on a lay summary, prepare for workshop sessions, and execute the sessions. To help participants through the process, we will provide them with a guide to developing an accessible, readable research lay summary, help them make decisions, and host, and facilitate if needed, their lay summary co-creation workshops. Discussion: Public-facing research outputs, including lay summaries, are increasingly important knowledge translation strategies to promote the impact of research on real-world issues. To produce lay summaries that include information that will interest a non-specialist readership and that are written in accessible language, stakeholder engagement is key. Furthermore, both researchers and stakeholders benefit by participating in the cocreation process. We hope the protocol helps researchers collaborate with stakeholders effectively to co-produce lay summaries that meet the needs of both the public and project funders.

What instructions are available to health researchers for writing lay summaries? A scoping review

“…A review of the biomedical literature showed the labels commonly used to describe a lay summary are 'lay summary', 'plain-language summary' and 'plain-English summary'. (1,(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(20)(21)(22) The INVOLVE definition of lay summaries(2) also uses the label 'plain-English summary'. These labels, however, are contrary to the findings of this review, which showed much greater variation in labels used for lay summaries and identified only 18 (11.0%) data sources that used these common labels.…”

“…Most health research is not written with the public in mind as it contains jargon and acronyms and is usually written at a high reading level. (1) Lay summaries are condensed summaries of research articles written in plain, easy-to-understand language aimed at a non-scientific audience. (1) Ideally, lay summaries contain no jargon or technical language.…”

“…(1) Lay summaries are condensed summaries of research articles written in plain, easy-to-understand language aimed at a non-scientific audience. (1) Ideally, lay summaries contain no jargon or technical language. (2) This makes them an ideal tool for disseminating reliable health information to the public.…”

“…Lay summaries are an important means of disseminating research findings to the public. (1) Unless non-experts can easily understand lay summaries, they may misinterpret the messages they contain. (1) Instructions should guide the author to write the lay summary with the intended audience in mind by avoiding jargon and ensuring the readability level is appropriate, for example by recommending a readability tool.…”

Co-creation of practical “how-to guides” for patient engagement in key phases of medicines development—from theory to implementation

“…This is only achievable through a good understanding of the environment in which the PE is to happen and the associated best practices that allow challenges to be anticipated and addressed. The need for this tailored and specific guidance is evidenced by the increase in documentation of individual PE projects that provide the level of detail needed to guide others wanting to replicate or conduct similar PE activities [ 36 – 39 ].…”