Plain language summaries of publications of company-sponsored medical research: what key questions do we need to address?

Key issues identified by stakeholders provide broad insights into the real and perceived barriers relating to PLS uptake. Each emerging theme presents a possible action that could accelerate PLS uptake and facilitate sharing of new medical research with lay audiences. Plain language summaryWhat do you need to know? Plain language summaries (PLS for short) explain medical research in a clear and understandable way. We found ways to improve how PLS are developed to help people understand medical research publications. See Additional file 1 for a graphic PLS.Why did we do this study? Many people struggle to understand medical research because authors use complex words in research publications. Currently, PLS vary in style and format and most research publications do not have a PLS.What did we do? We invited 29 experts from various organizations who develop, publish, read, or fund PLS to take part in this study. We asked them what issues they thought are preventing research publications from having a PLS, and how we could solve these issues.What did we find? Most groups agreed on the top 10 issues we need to look at to improve PLS so that more publications have a PLS. There are several ways to improve how PLS are developed. Guidelines on which publications should have a PLS and what they should include are urgently needed. People who think PLS are important need to request them to help make sure they are regularly included in research publications. We also need clear ways to share PLS, so people with an interest in medical research can find and read them.