Plain-language Summaries of Research: Something for everyone
- eLife, United Kingdom
Tables
Table 1
A selection of journals, societies and other organizations that produce plain-language summaries of scientific research.
| Organization | Type | Name of plain-language summaries | Length | Number of images | Number published per month/year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Astronomy Society (aasnova.org) | Scientific Society | Highlights | 350–500 words | 1 image, plus 1–3 figures from article | ~12/month |
| Journals Digests | One sentence | None | ~20/month | ||
| Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (promotions.bmj.com/ardsummaries/) | Journal | Patient summaries | 500–1,000 words | None at present | ~3/month |
| Astrobites (astrobites.org) | Student-led organization | N/A | 600–800 words | 1-2 | ~20/month |
| Autism (journals.sagepub.com/home/aut) | Journal | Lay abstracts | 250 words max. | None | ~80/year |
| British Psychological Society (digest.bps.org.uk) | Scientific Society | N/A | Variable, generally around 500–700 words | 1 | ~20/month |
| Cochrane (cochranelibrary.com) | Network of researchers | Plain-language summaries | 400–700 words | Usually none | Variable; published 485 in 2015. |
| eLife (elifesciences.org) | Journal | eLife digests | 200–400 words | None | 50–60/month |
| Frontiers in Young Minds (kids.frontiersin.org) | Journal | N/A | 2000 words max. | Variable | Variable; published over 100 articles since launch in 2013. |
| Functional Ecology (functionalecology.org) | Journal | Lay summaries | 250–350 words | 1 photograph | ~160 articles in 2016 |
| PLOS Medicine (journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/) | Journal | Author summaries | 6–9 single sentence bullet points | None | 14/month |
| Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (pnas.org) | Journal | Significance Statements | ~120 words | None | ~3000/year |
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Plain-language Summaries of Research: Something for everyone
eLife 6:e25411.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.25411
