There is growing evidence that explaining your work in plain language can help increase its impact, because more people will find, understand, read and cite it. Findings of studies in this area include:
| "Disparate studies show consistent connections between public communication, increased visibility of research, and greater numbers of citations ... scientists who engage in public communication enjoy an enhanced reputation among peers” | Koehne and Olden (2015) Opinion: Lay summaries needed to enhance science communication. PNAS 112 (12) 3585-3586 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1500882112 |
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| “Journals which publish papers with shorter titles receive more citations per paper” | Letchford, Moat and Preis (2015) The advantage of short paper titles. Royal Society Open Science 2 (8): 1-6. 150266 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150266 |
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| "Short titles presenting results or conclusions were independently associated with higher citation counts” | Paisa, Lima and Paiva (2012) Articles with short titles describing the results are cited more often. Clinics (Sao Paulo) 67(5): 509–513 http://dx.doi.org/10.6061/clinics/2012(05)17 |
Many different audiences can benefit from plain language explanations. As well as making work more comprehensible to the general public, taxpayers, the media and others outside academia, plain language explanations can help other people in your field (or in related fields) to quickly skim, scan and understand work so they know what is relevant enough for them to read in more detail. Nonetheless, many researchers lack confidence when it comes to explaining work in plain language.
In this post, we've answered some of the most common questions that researchers have when it comes to trying to explain their work in plain language.
The plain language summaries in Kudos are structured around two key questions:
When we began the process of developing our toolkit, and we asked researchers what they would find most useful to help them digest more of the literature, these were the two questions they wanted a summary to answer.
| Imagine you are talking to a non-specialist - perhaps a family member - and keep in mind the language you would use and the depth you would go into when telling them about your work.
Keep your sentences short - strip out unnecessary words. Keep your language as simple as possible – avoid terms that are specific to the field. Imagine someone asking you "so what?” and consider whether you have answered that implied question. Stay focused on the questions you’ve been asked; Plain language does not necessarily mean English! Use another language to explain your work if you find that easier. A simple summary of your work might help you find more readers in your own linguistic region, and will will also be easier to auto-translate for readers of other languages. Want to check your efforts? Test your text for readability at readable.io! |
Example from Dr Michele Tobias |
Example from Dr Maria Chatzichristodoulou |
| Has your work helped to progress the field?
Has it perhaps corrected a past assumption? What will people gain from reading it? What were some of your key findings? What is really novel? |
Example from Claudia Sick |
Example from Dr Benjamin Jones |
| "Writing is a challenge for many [researchers and] technical professionals, but following a few simple steps and taking the time to practice can make writing easier.” | Platt (2016) Five Ways Engineers Can Improve Their Writing. The Institute. http://theinstitute.ieee.org/career-and-education/career-guidance/five-ways-engineers-can-improve-their-writing |
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| These tips for writing the keywords, title and abstract of your paper are just as useful for writing your short title and plain language explanation in Kudos. | Grieves (2015) Maximising the Exposure of Your Research: Search Engine Optimisation and why it matters. Methods Blog. https://methodsblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/18/seo/ |
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| For more detailed guidance on writing a plain language summary | Buddle (2013) A guide for writing plain language summaries of research papers Arthropod Ecology blog. https://arthropodecology.com/2013/08/01/a-guide-for-writing-plain-language-summaries-of-research-papers/ |
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| The most comprehensive guide we know for writing for a broader audience | Duke (2012) How to Write a Lay Summary. DCC How-to Guides. Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre. http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides |
We have a series of video guides about how to get started with Kudos. Here's 2 minutes on explaining your work!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2EeVHiY9QA&w=560&h=315]