The Prevalence and Characteristics of Lay Summaries of                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          5
             Published Journal Articles
             Maria Haughton and Danielle Machin
             Costello Medical Consulting Ltd, Cambridge, UK
                 Objectives                                                                                              Figure 5             Characteristics of lay summaries
                 • To understand the current availability, characteristics and 
                    requirements of article lay summaries in published, peer                                                                                                                       Writer of Lay Summary
                    reviewed, journals.                                                                                                        1                      2                                                                                        25
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               20
                                                                                                                                              20                                                             N/A                                               15
             Background                                                                                                                                              19
                                                                                                                                                                                Editor                        3%                                               10
              • The term ‘lay summary’ is currently used to describe short, non-                                              Number of journals                                                                                                             Number of journals5
                 technical summaries aimed at a general audience, including, but not                                                                                                                                                                             0
                 limited to patients. Lay summaries of planned research now play an                                             Lay summary            Lay summary
                                                                                                1                               available for:         structure:                           31%                                                                     0   50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
                 important part in the majority of research grant applications,  and lay                                            Selected articles      Structured                                                                                                             Lay abstract word limit
                 summaries of results are also a requirement of clinical trials taking                                              All articles
                 place in EU member states.2                                                                                                               Not structured                                                                     Author
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     62%                                                                       2
              • Some journals are now making lay summaries of journal articles                                                                                                                                                                                               7
                 available alongside standard article abstracts, aiming to improve access 
                                                                                                             3
                 to the latest scientific research for both patients and the wider public.
                 –  A recent study has demonstrated that patient access to research literature                                                                                                 4%
                                                                                                        3
                    can be important in helping them manage their health conditions.                                                           1                                                                                                                            36                                41
                                                                                                                                                                                 Medical
             Methods                                                                                                                                   Lay summary                Writer                                                                                    Lay summary                       Lay summary
                                                                                                                                               2       structure:                                                                                           Number of journalsstructure:                      reporting:
              • The websites of the publishers that produce the 100 most impactful                                                                         Structured                                                                                                           Structured                       Optional
                 medical journals (measured by the citation/article index) were                                               Number of journals           Not structured                                                                                                       Not structured                   Required
                 systematically searched, using relevant terms, for journals publishing 
                 lay summaries (Box 1).
              • The year established, year of first lay abstract, journal topic, and                                     N/A: Not available.
                 impact factor were collected from each journal’s website.
              • The instructions for authors of identified journals were reviewed to                                     medical journals making up about half (53%) of those identified.                                      • Of the summaries written by the editors, the majority were 
                 establish who was responsible for writing the lay summary, its purpose,                                 Available impact factors ranged between 18.2 (Gastroenterology) to                                       unstructured, but available for all articles (Figure 5). Additionally, 3 
                 and whether there were any specific guidelines for the summary content.                                 0.9 (Labour Economics), but 28 (40%) of journals were too recently                                       journals commissioned summaries of selected articles, which were 
             Results                                                                                                     established to be indexed.                                                                               written by independent medical writers.
                                                                                                                      • The majority (43, 62%) of journals were open access, and targeted lay 
              • Publishers’ websites, representing ~7630 journals, were searched,                                        abstracts at the general public (Figure 3). 
                 and 69 (<1%) journals that published lay summaries alongside the                                        –  Despite the stated target audience, 3 (11% of subscription journals)                                  Conclusions
                 main abstracts were identified. Overall, 13 of the 31 (41%) publishers                                     journals identified did not make lay summaries freely available (Figure 3).
                 produced a journal including at least 1 lay summary (Figure 1).                                      • Summaries aimed at lay readers and patients were referred to using 13                                      • Relatively few journals currently publish summaries for lay readers. 
              • Lay summaries are a comparatively new addition to the journal format,                                    different terms (Figure 4).                                                                               • Over half of those identified were written by authors/writers as part 
                 with the most established lay summaries dating from 1999 (Figure 2).                                 • The majority (62%) of journals required an author-composed summary                                            of the manuscript submission or following manuscript acceptance. 
                 – Many of the journals identified were launched after 2010 and have                                     to be submitted alongside the manuscript or following article                                             • Lay summaries of journal articles are typically shorter than 
                    always included a lay summary in their format (Figure 2).                                            acceptance (Figure 5).                                                                                       abstracts, and there is currently little consistency or guidance 
              • Identified journals publishing lay summaries covered a wide range                                        – Word limits varied between 30 and 500 words, but lay abstracts were                                        from journals as to their structure and content.
                 of topics, including biology, economics, and material science, with                                        typically around 150 words (Figure 5).
                 Figure 1            Number and proportion of journals                                                   Figure 2             Year of journal and lay                                                             Figure 3             Stated lay summary target 
                                     including a lay summary per publisher                                                                    summary establishment                                                                                    audience and accessibility
                                                                                 Proportion of                                70
                                                                                 published journals                                           Year first lay summary published                                                                                                                          Open access
                             Nature Publishing Group                                            16 14.5%                                      Year established                                                                        Non-specialist scientist                                          Subscription
                                       Springer-Verlag                                   12           0.5%                    60                                                                                                                                                                        Lay abstract not 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Non-medical readership                                             freely available
                                              Elsevier                              10                0.3%
                            Public Library of Science                    6                           85.7%                    50                                                                                                               Non-scientists
                   American Society for Microbiology                  5                              38.5%
                                          EMBOpress                4                                 100%                     40                                                                                                            Wider readership
                                 Biomed Central Ltd.               4                                  1.5%
                                                                                                                              30                                                                                                                     Patients
                   Publisher       John Wiley & Sons               4                                  0.2%
                                                AAAS            3                                    60.0%                  Number of journals
                                                                                                                              20                                                                                                                       Carers
                              Oxford University Press        2                                        0.6%
                     American Society of Hematology       1                                          100%                                                                                                                        Stated lay summary target audienceLay person/general public
                      American College of Physicians                                                                          10
                                                          1                                          25.0%
                               BMJ Publishing Group       1                                           2.2%                                                                                                                                                N/A
                                                                                                                               0
                                                      0     2    4     6     8   10 12 14 16                                    1916      1985     1990      1995      2000     2005      2010      2015      2020                                            0        5         10        15       20        25        30
                                                                  Number of journals                                                                                    Year                                                                                                      Number of journals*
                 AAAS: American Association for the Advancement of Science.                                                                                                                                                   *Journals which stated more than one target audience are represented more than once.
                 Box 1               Publishers included and search terms used                                                                                                                                                    Figure 4            Frequency of terms used to denote 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      lay summaries
                   Publishers searched                                                                                                                                   Search terms
                   American Association for Cancer Research                                          Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press                                 “Lay summary”                                            Synopsis Plain English summary Plain language summary
                   American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)                        Elsevier                                                            “Lay abstract”
                   American College of Physicians                                                    EMBOpress                                                           “Patient summary”                                         Editor’s summary Importance Summary slide
                   American Diabetes Association                                                     Endocrine Society                                                   “Plain English summary”                                  Author summary
                   American Heart Association                                                        Ivyspring International Publisher                                   “Plain language summary”                                                                     Editorial summary
                   American Medical Association                                                      Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC)                “Plain English abstract”                                   Summary for patients Key considerations                        Scientific summary
                   American Physiological Society                                                    John Wiley & Sons                                                   “Significance summary”                                     Lay summary
                   American Psychiatric Publishing                                                   Massachusetts Medical Society                                       “Summary of significance”                                                                       Key points             Patient summary
                   American Society for Microbiology                                                 Nature Publishing Group                                             “Author summary”
                   American Society of Clinical Oncology                                             Oxford University Press (OUP)                                       “Key points”
                   American Society of Hematology                                                    Public Library of Science (PLoS)                                    “Editor’s summary”
                   American Thoracic Society                                                         Rockefeller University Press                                        “Importance”                                         References
                   Annual Reviews                                                                    Springer-Verlag                                                     “Synopsis”
                   American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI)                                University of Chicago Press                                                                                              1. Duke M. DCC How-to Guides 2012; Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre. 
                   Biomed Central Ltd.                                                               Wolters Kluwer - Lippincott Williams and Wilkins                                                                         Available online: http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/how-guides, last accessed: 15 
                   BMJ Publishing Group                                                                                                                                                                                       Dec 2016; 2. Regulation (EU) No. 536/2014 of the European Parliament and of 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              the Council; 3. Nunn E. and Pinfield S. Learned Publishing 2014;27:173–184.
             Abstract
             Objectives                                                                                                  article), using relevant terms (including “lay summary”, “editor’s summary”,                             wider scientific community and general public. 24 journals published summaries 
              •  Journals can increase public understanding of the articles they publish through the                     “synopsis”). The instructions for authors of identified journals were reviewed to                        written or commissioned by the editors, which were available for all research articles 
                 use of summaries specifically targeted at a lay audience. The objective of this review                  understand the origin, purpose of, and requirements for the lay summary.                                 (20 journals) or selected research articles only (4 journals).
                 is to understand the current availability, characteristics and requirements of lay                   Results                                                                                                 Conclusions
                 summaries in journals.
                                                                                                                      •  Publishers’ websites, representing ~7630 journals, were searched and 69 (<1%)                         •  Relatively few journals currently publish summaries for lay readers. Over half of those 
             Research Design and Methods                                                                                 journals which published lay summaries alongside the main abstracts were identified.                     identified were written by authors/writers as part of the manuscript submission. There 
              •  Journals publishing lay summaries were identified through website searches of the                       Of these, the majority (62%) required an author-composed summary to be submitted                         is currently little consistency or guidance from journals as to the structure and content 
                 31 publishers of the 100 most impactful medical journals (measured by citations/                        alongside the manuscript (optional in 2 journals). The summaries were mainly                             of lay summaries.
                                                                                                                         unstructured, with word limits between 75 and 500 words, and were aimed at the 
             Presented at the 2017 European Meeting of the International Society for Medical 
             Publication Professionals (ISMPP), 17–18 January 2017, London, UK                                                                                                                  Copyright © Costello Medical Consulting