Hi Neil

We did this at the Environment Agency for all technical reports published by the science department during my tenure there (2006-10). The summaries were either written by me or by freelance writers (often the same people who were editing the technical reports to ensure clarity/house style). For a while they were also translated into Welsh which was a bit of a headache because it was hard to sense check the finer points. 

We asked the scientists to check the summaries for scientific accuracy but discouraged them from changing anything for the sake of it. They were deliberately written in a more informal style and often with a view to them doubling as a press release if required. I had to do quite a lot of smoothing the way with the scientists to build trust and persuade them that we weren't misrepresenting them or dumbing down. Most of the time they were pleased with the end result and found it useful because in addition to the public facing side, we found they were invaluable as a quick guide for policy makers/senior management.

If you would like examples, they will all be available on the Environment Agency's publications catalogue (https://publications.environment-agency.gov.uk), however it has never been the most user friendly of interfaces. Searching for "science summary" will bring up lots of them - I can delve the depths of my memory for details of particularly good examples if that would be useful.

Best wishes
Hazel

On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 6:01 PM, ejnewall <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hi Neil

Take a look at the MRS Clinical Sciences Centre website. They do something similar creating lay summaries of research as part of their news output.

www.mrc.csc.ac.uk

Emma


Sent from Samsung Mobile

Neil Stoker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Dear all

In the Science For All report from 2010, one Action Point was:


------

2.3 Provide accessible information on the sciences (including lay research summaries) via a single web portal

-  ensure that all scientific research papers with any public interest dimension have a plain English summary giving context and implications, for public and media consumption

------


I'm thinking of doing something towards this in my institution, or more broadly, and am looking for information about initiatives, practice, experience, supporting research, and general discussions on this topic.


Any comments or information gratefully received.

Thanks

Neil Stoker.

-  

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