Best practices for writing effective lay summaries

CrammHeidi,; BreimerJanet,; LeeLydia,; BurchJulie,; AshfordValerie,; SchaubMike,

doi:10.3138/jmvfh.3.1.004

Cited by 6 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Before writing a lay summary, one should consider the audience. It’s likely that a reader outside the scientific community will have the experience to understand scientific writing [1] , [14] . Additionally, the focus of the lay summary might be different from the goals of the scientific paper itself.…”

Section: Writing For Lay Audiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Jargon is the specialized vocabulary that is familiar to people within a field of study, but difficult for those outside the field to understand. Jargon is a major barrier for readers to understand scientific text [14] . For medical personnel, scientific jargon quickly becomes second nature when composing a written work.…”

Section: Writing For Lay Audiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using this voice, who is giving the drug to the patient? The passive voice is often used in scientific writing to make the author or investigator neutral [1] , [14] . By using an active voice, the subject of the sentence comes first and more clearly illustrates "who" is doing "what".…”

Section: Writing For Lay Audiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It also tends to be more concise. Look for sentences that include “no,” “none,” “never,” “negative,” or “not” and try to re-write them without using “negative” wording [14] . Sentences that use negative phrases inherently impart a negative tone.…”

Section: Writing For Lay Audiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Extending the reach of science – Talk in plain language

Sedgwick

Belmonte

Margolis

et al. 2021

Epilepsy & Behavior Reports

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Section: Writing For Lay Audiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Writing For Lay Audiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Writing For Lay Audiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Writing For Lay Audiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Extending the reach of science – Talk in plain language

Sedgwick

Belmonte

Margolis

et al. 2021

Epilepsy & Behavior Reports

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The process of creating a lay summary is an inherently collaborative one: ensuring that researchers work on an equal footing with key stakeholders at an early project proposal stage is critical to their fully understanding each stakeholder's language ability and literacy level, as well as their interest in, experience of, and knowledge level of an issue that a project aims to address [11,19]. In particular, incorporating lay perspectives into research is perceived as beneficial for facilitating understandings of problem areas and increasing a research team's capacity to generate more effective solutions [13,20,21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2020

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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.

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Tips for writing plain language summaries of medical journal publications

Wen

2023

Learned Publishing

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Best practices for writing effective lay summaries

Cited by 6 publications

References 3 publications

Extending the reach of science – Talk in plain language

Extending the reach of science – Talk in plain language

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

Tips for writing plain language summaries of medical journal publications

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