By facilitating the dissemination of research, we believe we can make a real difference to both scientific and societal outcomes. But the research journey isn’t over upon publication. That’s only the beginning. The next step is to increase awareness and visibility of published work, and this is where we can play an important role in providing you with the resources and information you need to communicate science in a creative and efficient manner. And we can help in other ways, too.
As James Bowers notes in Speak, write, tweet from our Scicomm guide “lay summaries increase visibility and scope of a research paper” and it has been reported that articles with lay summaries are read more than those without one. They can help you make the biggest impact possible with your paper and open your research up to a wider audience – across and within disciplines.
This year, we published a collection of lay summaries to distill and convey the key findings of articles readers have enjoyed across different areas of medicine and STEM. The intention behind this collection of short, jargon-free summaries is to ensure the research reaches the people who need it, and that it has as much impact as possible both within the scientific community and beyond.
Read from a wide selection of lay summaries published this year across the following research areas:
Bioengineering
Strengthening PMMA denture resin
Titanium Mesh in Guided Bone Regeneration
Drug development
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and cancer
Novel controlled-release antibacterial dental gel
Extreme Streptomyces potential source of new antibacterial drugs
Neuropsychopharmacological approaches to treating depression
Environmental Science
Phosphate Solubilizing Microbes as Promising Biofertilizers
The Role of Pathogenic E. coli in Fresh Vegetables
Characterizing drug-resistant E. coli in environmental waters
Trace metal contamination of Uganda’s Lake Victoria basin
Environmental chemical contamination of food
Toxic effects of titanium dioxide nanoparticles in rats
Maternal & Newborn Health
Charting a path to treat newborns with hypocalcemia
Prevalence and predictors of unintended pregnancy in Ghana
Low birth weight and its predictors in an Ethiopian hospital
Heavy metals and micronutrients as key factors in preterm birth
Human milk oligosaccharides: new frontiers in neonatal nutrition?
Medicinal Plants & Foods
Antibacterial properties of a leafy cactus
Medicinal plants used to synthesize silver nanoparticles
Honey as an antibacterial agent
Evaluating the toxicity of mango leaf extract at high doses
Public Health
Association between obesity and dental caries
Childhood immunization rates in rural Ethiopia
Shining a light on urinary tract infections in Uganda
Lower back pain in Ethiopian long-distance truck drivers
Quantifying factors associated with open defecation in Ghana
A huge thank you to the researchers and scientific community for your continued support, your hard work, and your ingenuity. We will continue to find new ways to enhance research visibility through science communication and help advance the discovery and understanding of research.
This blog post is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY). Illustration adapted from Adobe Stock by David Jury.