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

Introduced in 2020, plain language summaries of publications (PLSPs) are standalone articles that aim to expand the reach of scientific findings to non-specialist audiences using plain language and meaningful visuals. Despite increased publication, there is no agreed cross-publisher definition of PLSPs, resulting in inconsistent terminology, formatting, peer-review processes, and metadata that hinder indexing and discoverability in bibliographic databases such as PubMed and Europe PMC. In February 2024, the multistakeholder collaboration Open Pharma launched an initiative to review existing standards and practices related to the publication of PLSPs. After identifying three publishers offering standalone PLSPs - Becaris Publishing, Sage, and Taylor & Francis - representatives from each formed a steering committee to define PLSPs and agree on principles that differentiate them from other publishing formats. PLSPs are defined as standalone summaries of peer-reviewed articles, written according to plain language principles, published open access with a unique digital object identifier (DOI), and are themselves peer reviewed (including by someone who is not a scientific specialist in the topic area). They should include a summary, clear reference to the original article, and a combination of text and meaningful graphics. This consensus provides a foundation for standardizing PLSPs as a distinct article type and acceptable secondary publication format. We hope it will also support consistent authoring, editorial management, peer-review processes and indexing. We call on indexing services to formally recognize PLSPs and on publishers to adopt this format as an accurate and reliable source of understandable scientific information.