Landscaping the terminology of lay and plain language document types

<p>There are three main types of plain language documents that medical publications professionals may work on. These are:</p> <p>• regulatory Lay Language Summaries (LLS)</p> <p>• publication-associated Plain Language Summaries (PLS)</p> <p>• Plain Language Summaries of Publications (PLSP).</p> <p><br></p> <p>Although these document types all have different purposes and audiences, they often get confused because of the similar names. In this poster, we outline the main differences between each of the three documents and present the different names used to refer to regulatory LLS, totalling 16 different names. We also show examples of the different literacy levels used in regulatory LLS and  publication-associated PLS.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Medical publications professionals need to be aware of the differences in plain language document types and need to be precise when discussing these. Standardization could help avoid confusion.</p> <p><br></p> <p>*Please note that the development of this poster was not supported by Open Pharma, but was developed by the authors independent of their association with Open Pharma as representatives of Oxford PharmaGenesis Ltd and Galapagos NV.</p>