What Author Instructions Do Health Journals Provide for Writing Plain Language Summaries? A Scoping Review.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Plain language summaries (PLSs) are intended for a non-expert audience in order to make health research accessible and understandable to the public. This is important because most research is written with jargon and at a high reading level. However, there is a high degree of variability in the instructions for writing PLSs, which may impede their usefulness as a tool for communicating health research to the public.

Objective

The aim of this scoping review was to conduct a detailed analysis of the author instructions for PLSs provided by leading biomedical and health journals.

Method

We screened 534 health journals covering 11 categories selected from the InCites Journal Citation Reports linked to the top 10 non-communicable diseases. We included journals pu

SUBMITTER: Gainey KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9813023 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature