Use of plain language summaries by healthcare professionals: an Open Pharma survey
Poster presented at the 2025 European Meeting of the International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP), 27–29 January 2025, London, UK.
Objective
Plain language summaries (PLS) are easy-to-read summaries of scientific research articles[1]. Few articles are published with easy-to-find PLS[2], but they are valued by healthcare professionals (HCPs)[3], and pharmaceutical companies are increasingly writing PLS to accompany articles[4]. Little is known about how HCPs find and use PLS; we developed a survey to assess this.
Research design and methods
An 18-question online survey was sent by email (24 April–17 June 2024) to 5141 HCPs who had previously contributed to articles sponsored by AstraZeneca, Ipsen or GSK.
Results
Of 188 respondents, three (2%) were excluded for not being HCPs. Most eligible respondents had more than 20 years’ experience in clinical practice (62%, 115/185), and 60% (111/185) did not speak English as their first language. Most respondents (72%, 133/185) had read/contributed to at least one PLS. These respondents found short, text-based (78%, 104/133) and infographic (71%, 94/133) PLS formats the most useful, and 73% (97/133) would like all Phase 3 articles to include a PLS. However, 5% (7/133) had never read/used the PLS when an article includes one. The 126 respondents (95%, 126/133) who had read/used PLS used them to: quickly understand an article (76%, 96/126); keep up to date with topics outside their speciality (33%, 42/126); help interactions with patients/advocacy groups (32%, 40/126); and/or share with patients/carers to read on their own (32%, 40/126). Most respondents (71%, 89/126) found PLS by chance alongside full-text articles.
Conclusions
PLS help communicate scientific research to time-restricted HCPs. Publishing more PLS and improving how they are found will help broaden the impact of scientific research.
References
1. Rosenberg A, Baróniková S, Feighery L, Gattrell W, Egelund Olsen R, Watson A, Koder T and Winchester C. Open Pharma recommendations for plain language summaries of peer-reviewed medical journal publications. Curr Med Red Opin. 2021;37:2015–6. doi:10.1080/03007995.2021.1971185.
2. Gattrell W, Wager K, Sheikh N and Chisholm A. Prevalence and characteristics of plain language summaries indexed in PubMed. Curr Med Res Opin. 2022;38:S41–2. doi:10.1080/03007995.2022.2044117.
3. Lobban D, Oliver J, Buttaro M, Falleni D and McGrath M. Do healthcare professionals really value plain language summaries? Curr Med Res Opin. 2022;38:S32–3. doi:10.1080/03007995.2022.2044117.
4. Ipsen. Our pledge: summaries in plain language for all journal publications. 2022. Available from: https://www.ipsen.com/general/our-pledge-summaries-in-plain-language-for-all-journal-publications/ (Accessed 28 August 2024).
