2. The Abstract and the Lay Summary

In the Abstract and Lay Summary, this may simply be one or two lines, e.g. ‘A retention strategy will be developed with a PPI committee’, ‘A PPI contributor will work with the team on a communications approach that will disseminate the results to…’

Note that the Abstract and the Lay Summary are not the same thing. While elements of the abstract may be relevant to the lay summary, it is important that the lay summary is explaining what your research is about and why it is relevant. It is not about ‘dumbing down’ your abstract; it is about explaining your approach and its relevance to an audience who are not specialists in your field.  

Some tips for writing useful lay summaries

The following tips are from the UK Academy of Medical Sciences website, with some adaptations more appropriate to Irish funding applications :

Imagine you’re talking to the reader

You want to include everything but it’s not possible. Imagine you are explaining this to a family member (who is not an expert in the field). How would you describe it? What are the words, processes or dynamics you’d need to explain in order for them to ‘get it’?

Answer the questions what, where, when, why and how

By keeping these questions in mind, you will cover what the reader would ask.

Keep it short

You’ll be constrained by wordcount, so the temptation is to put in a sentence with lots of clauses. Please break it up into shorter sentences and use bulleted and numbered lists where you can. You can even use subheadings if you have space. The HRB explicitly advises that applicants use Plan English when writing funding bids and points to the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) checklist.

Get rid of any jargon

‘Jargon’ is often an unhelpfully dismissive word; to each researcher, the language that they use is not jargon but the language that is appropriate to the study of their field. Your lay summary, however, is not about communicating to others in your field so please use words that would be understandable to a family member or to someone reading a newspaper article.

Make it human

Use person centred language such as ‘people with breast cancer’ rather than ‘breast cancer sufferers’. Phrases like ‘the elderly’ or ‘the disabled’ or ‘victim of…’ further dehumanise people. The public reviewers may be particularly sensitive to this language.

Put your research in context – how does it fit into the bigger picture?

Make sure you give the reader a bit of background, is your study trying to find out more about a certain condition or is it testing potential new treatments?

Explain the study’s impact – what are you hoping to achieve?

As stated above, funders want all of their research to be impactful. Whether that impact will be immediate or will require further funding for a significant impact after a number of years, the funder needs to understand what the potential result of their funding is. The public reviewer may be focused on the impact it will have on patients’ lives or on the lives of their families or carers.

Don't shy away from mentioning animals

If your study involves animals then be honest about it, stating the type of animal used, rather than the phrase ‘animal model’.

Don't oversimplify your research

Some researchers make the mistake that they are ‘dumbing down’ their research rather than communicating it to a different audience. This can lead to oversimplification in the lay summary, where the reviewers learn nothing new or worthwhile about how your research is different or will add anything new.

Get a colleague and a non-scientist to read it

Input from both of these readers will ensure that that the balance between what is communicated and how it is communicated is just right.

The Academy of Medical Sciences also has two excellent examples of Plain English Summaries for you to look at.