It can be useful to have someone read it and explain it back to you. It is highly beneficial to involve a member of your target audience in the creation of your PLS. All data provided in the PLS should also be given in the scientific article, and any data presented in a PLS should not go beyond the data provided in the scientific article. ![]() Denominators and timeframes should be consistent throughout and complicated statistics avoided. Whole numbers should be used and displayed either as absolute numbers, percentages, or natural frequencies (e.g. The reader should not be expected to do any calculations and only essential numbers should be included. Superlative and emotional words, phrases and metaphors should be avoided if possible.ĭata should be presented concisely and in a way that is not open to misinterpretation. Writing your PLS in the active voice, as suggested above, is recommended as it will make it clearer for readers and prevent sentences from becoming too complicated or wordy. Technical terms that cannot be avoided will also require additional explanation. ![]() Jargon doesn’t just refer to long, technical terms, but also words that could have different meanings to non-scientists (e.g. You will need to contextualise the background information use short, concise sentences use simplified terms and avoid using jargon or unnecessary acronyms. Writing a PLS requires a different set of skills to writing a scholarly article. Step 2: Convey the message of your research in plain language It may be useful to provide direct answers to the following questions as part of your PLS to encourage active reading: Make sure your PLS is balanced and accurately represents your study: you should not provide opinions or speculation on your findings. You will need to provide more detail on the context than in the scientific abstract so the reader is able to understand how and why the study was carried out. For journals included in PubMed, the PLS is included as part of indexed abstract.īefore you start writing your PLS, think carefully about who your intended audience is and why your article should matter to them. ![]() It should provide a clear, accessible summary of the content of a journal article for a broader audience and can be an effective way of expanding the reach and understanding of authors’ work to patients, caregivers, policymakers, and non-specialists. The PLS sits after the scientific abstract and consists of a plain language title (approximately 50 words) and the plain language summary (approximately 300 words). SAGE Author Services also offers a paid service to assist you with writing plain language summaries. Please remember to also refer the specific journal’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines for more information before submission. In this blog, we aim to guide authors through the process of developing a PLS for a manuscript suitable for submission to SAGE Journals. Many SAGE journals already consider PLS submissions, and you may want to consider including a PLS in your own submission to expand its reach to policymakers, media, and nonexperts. Plain language summaries (PLS) are becoming increasingly prevalent in the scientific literature as they have the potential to broaden the impact of scholarly articles by bringing them to the attention of a more general audience.
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