{"id":37477,"date":"2021-05-24T14:59:38","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T09:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37477"},"modified":"2025-11-25T15:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T09:41:15","slug":"sharing-your-research-with-patients-dont-make-these-mistakes-in-plain-language-summaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/sharing-your-research-with-patients-dont-make-these-mistakes-in-plain-language-summaries","title":{"rendered":"Sharing Your Research with Patients? Don\u2019t Make These Mistakes in Plain Language Summaries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Plain language summaries (PLS or Lay summaries)\u2014synopses of research written in non-technical language\u2014are important for non-specialists, such as patients, to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/29062542\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">understand and use the research findings<\/a>. PLS(Lay summary) can increase patients\u2019 knowledge, which translates into\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/29714545\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">improved dialogue with healthcare providers and better decision-making<\/a>. For PLS(Lay summary) to be truly helpful, they should be free of these mistakes:<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Terms that only seem simple<\/h4>\n<p>Terms like \u201cprospective study\u201d or \u201ccluster sampling\u201d are so widely known among researchers that they often forget that the general public may not understand these accurately. It\u2019s an art to explain these without \u201cdumbing down\u201d the overall PLS(Lay summary). For example: \u201cTest results were reviewed by physicians who did not know which group the patients belonged to\u201d rather than \u201cWe followed a double-blinded process; that is, neither the participants nor the physicians knew who was in the treatment group and who was in the control group.\u201d Non-specialists don\u2019t really need a definition of double-blinding but just a description of what happened, while specialists know the term anyway.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sophisticated language<\/h4>\n<p>PLS(Lay summary) are not read exclusively by college-educated native English speakers. Avoid complex sentences and sophisticated vocabulary (e.g., use \u201craised\u201d instead of \u201caugmented\u201d and \u201ccollected\u201d instead of \u201ccollated\u201d). Stick to the \u201csubject-verb-object\u201d sentence structure, so that non-native speakers can easily follow the direction of thought.<br \/>\nAvoid: \u201cWhen diet complies with the guidelines outlined in this article, a decrease of 20\u201330 percent in the risk of colorectal cancer is anticipated.\u201d<br \/>\nInstead: \u201cThe diet we recommend could lower people\u2019s risk of colorectal cancer by 20\u201330 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Exaggerated implications<\/h4>\n<p>In the quest to be simple, make sure you don\u2019t make claims beyond the results of the study. For example, if your cross-sectional data show that increased egg consumption was significantly associated with severity of depressive symptoms, your PLS(Lay summary) shouldn\u2019t say \u201ceating more eggs reduces depression.\u201d Instead, depending on the limitations of the study, you could say something like \u201cpeople who eat more eggs may have less severe symptoms of depression\u201d or \u201cwe found a potential link between egg consumption and depression.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Lack of essential details<\/h4>\n<p>PLS(Lay summary) are not abstracts in that readers of PLS may not be able to access or comprehend the full paper. PLS(Lay summary) therefore should contain whatever information readers need to apply the findings in their lives. For instance, the study population should be clearly described (at least mention location, ethnicity, sex, age, and comorbidities, and also possibly BMI, education, income, marital status, and employment status, depending on the type of study done). These details are important for readers to know whether the study findings might apply to them.<\/p>\n<p>In biomedicine in particular, patients have the most to gain from research,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ismpp-newsletter.com\/2019\/05\/01\/we-need-to-talk-about-plsexploring-the-opportunities-of-plain-language-summaries\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">yet are unable to utilize published research adequately because of technical language<\/a>. PLS(Lay summary), if drafted appropriately, will go a long way in making research truly accessible. It\u2019s not surprising that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC7416593\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">PLS will be featured<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ismpp-newsletter.com\/2020\/09\/29\/ismpp-announces-steady-progress-on-gpp4-guidance-for-medical-publication-professionals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">upcoming version of the Good Publication Practice guidelines<\/a>\u00a0(GPP4). GPP4 should hopefully provide additional guidance on the structure and format of PLS, to promote knowledge transfer and democratization of research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plain language summaries (PLS or Lay summaries)\u2014synopses of research written in non-technical language\u2014are important for non-specialists, such as patients, to\u00a0understand and use the research findings. PLS(Lay summary) can increase patients\u2019 knowledge, which translates into\u00a0improved dialogue with healthcare providers and better decision-making. For PLS(Lay summary) to be truly helpful, they should be free of these mistakes: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":33313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5889],"tags":[],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-37477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-media-and-tools-for-science-communication"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sharing Your Research with Patients? Don\u2019t Make These Mistakes in Plain Language Summaries | Editage Insights<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37477\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sharing Your Research with Patients? Don\u2019t Make These Mistakes in Plain Language Summaries | Editage Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Plain language summaries (PLS or Lay summaries)\u2014synopses of research written in non-technical language\u2014are important for non-specialists, such as patients, to\u00a0understand and use the research findings. PLS(Lay summary) can increase patients\u2019 knowledge, which translates into\u00a0improved dialogue with healthcare providers and better decision-making. For PLS(Lay summary) to be truly helpful, they should be free of these mistakes: [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37477\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Editage Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-24T09:29:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-25T09:41:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Marisha Fonseca\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Editage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Editage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Marisha Fonseca\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37477#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37477\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Marisha Fonseca\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/d7c4142919456ea4250396c49fe1f777\"},\"headline\":\"Sharing Your Research with Patients? 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Don\u2019t Make These Mistakes in Plain Language Summaries | Editage Insights","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37477","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sharing Your Research with Patients? Don\u2019t Make These Mistakes in Plain Language Summaries | Editage Insights","og_description":"Plain language summaries (PLS or Lay summaries)\u2014synopses of research written in non-technical language\u2014are important for non-specialists, such as patients, to\u00a0understand and use the research findings. PLS(Lay summary) can increase patients\u2019 knowledge, which translates into\u00a0improved dialogue with healthcare providers and better decision-making. For PLS(Lay summary) to be truly helpful, they should be free of these mistakes: [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37477","og_site_name":"Editage Insights","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage","article_published_time":"2021-05-24T09:29:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-11-25T09:41:15+00:00","author":"Marisha Fonseca","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Editage","twitter_site":"@Editage","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Marisha Fonseca","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37477#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?p=37477"},"author":{"name":"Marisha Fonseca","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/d7c4142919456ea4250396c49fe1f777"},"headline":"Sharing Your Research with Patients? 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