Cross-publisher agreement on the defining principles of plain language summaries of publications (PLSPs)

<p dir="ltr">Poster presented at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP), 12–14 May 2025, Washington, DC, USA.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Objective</b></p><p dir="ltr">Plain language summaries of publications (PLSPs) are a standalone article type that present research in a way that is easily understood by non-specialist audiences[1,2]. Publication of PLSPs has increased considerably since their launch in 2020. However, there is no established definition of this article type. We aimed to identify principles that define PLSPs to encourage standardization.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Research design and methods</b></p><p dir="ltr">Publisher and journal websites (International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers or International Committee of Medical Journal Editors members) were reviewed for PLSP guidelines. Three publishers offering PLSPs were identified[3–5]. Their representatives attended workshops to review available guidelines and agree on the definition and key principles that make PLSPs a discrete article type.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Results</b></p><p dir="ltr">Existing PLSP guidance was aligned, allowing cross-publisher agreement on a definition and key principles of PLSPs (Table). </p><p dir="ltr"><a href="" target="_blank"><b>Table: the definition and key principles of PLSPs</b></a></p><table><tr><td><p dir="ltr"><b>Definition of a PLSP</b></p></td></tr><tr><td><p dir="ltr"><i>“Plain language summaries of publications (PLSPs) are standalone summaries of peer-reviewed articles written according to plain language principles and published in peer-reviewed journals. PLSPs are designed to meet the needs of diverse audiences, including different groups of readers to those of the original article and time-poor individuals. As peer-reviewed standalone articles with a unique DOI, PLSPs differ from other types of research summaries, such as text and graphical plain language summaries published within a peer-reviewed article and lay summaries of clinical trial results developed for regulatory purposes.”</i></p><p><br></p></td></tr><tr><td><p dir="ltr"><b>Content principles</b></p></td></tr><tr><td><p dir="ltr">PLSPs must:</p><p dir="ltr">· Include an abstract or summary</p><p dir="ltr">· Follow plain language principles and include a combination of text and graphical elements</p><p dir="ltr">· Have a title that makes it clear that it is a summary article written in plain language</p><p dir="ltr">· Include a clear/prominent link/reference to the original article(s) being summarized</p><p dir="ltr">· Be peer reviewed, ideally by at least one person representing the target audience(s)</p></td></tr><tr><td><p dir="ltr"><b>Process principles</b></p></td></tr><tr><td><p dir="ltr">When developing PLSPs, authors should:</p><p dir="ltr">· Seek support and/or permission from the rights holder of the original article(s)</p><p dir="ltr">· Consider including at least one author from the original article(s)</p><p dir="ltr">· Follow journal/publisher guidelines and policies (e.g. authorship criteria, acknowledgements, use of AI, etc.)</p><p dir="ltr">When producing PLSPs, publishers should ensure that:</p><p dir="ltr">· PLSPs are published as standalone articles with their own DOI</p><p dir="ltr">· PLSPs are published open access, e.g. under a Creative Commons license</p></td></tr></table><p dir="ltr">AI, artificial intelligence; DOI, digital object identifier; PLSP, plain language summary of publication</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Conclusions</b></p><p dir="ltr">All publishers offering PLSPs agree on the principles defining them as a discrete article type. To ensure standardization, publishers introducing PLSPs to their journals should consider these principles. Indexing services (e.g. PubMed) should support standardization by creating a PLSP article-type category.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Full References including DOI (if any)</b></p><p dir="ltr">1. Dormer L, Walker J. Plain language summary of publication articles: helping disseminate published scientific articles to patients. <i>Future Oncol.</i> 2020;16:1873–74. doi: 10.2217/fon-2020-0784.</p><p dir="ltr">2. Taylor & Francis. Frequently Asked Questions. Everything you need to know about publishing plain language summaries. Available from: <a href="https://www.plainlanguagesummaries.com/faq/" target="_blank">https://www.plainlanguagesummaries.com/faq/</a> (accessed November 2024)</p><p dir="ltr">3. Sage. Plain Language Summaries of Publications (PLS-P). Available from: <a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/plain-language-summaries-of-publications-pls-p" target="_blank">https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/plain-language-summaries-of-publications-pls-p</a> (accessed November 2024)</p><p dir="ltr">4. Becaris Publishing. Plain Language Summaries. Available from: <a href="https://becarispublishing.com/journal/cer/plain-language-summaries" target="_blank">https://becarispublishing.com/journal/cer/plain-language-summaries</a> (accessed November 2024)</p><p dir="ltr">5. Taylor & Francis. How to write and publish a Plain Language Summary. <a href="https://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/publishing-your-research/writing-your-paper/how-to-write-a-plain-language-summary/" target="_blank">https://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/publishing-your-research/writing-your-paper/how-to-write-a-plain-language-summary/</a> (accessed November 2024)</p><p dir="ltr"><br></p>