Writing a lay abstract

In 2009 Asthma UK introduced greater involvement of lay people in our grant round process.

We now have a group of lay reviewers and lay members of the Research Review Panel who comment on and score all grant applications.

It is therefore important that lay abstracts in grant applications are accessible and provide enough information for reviewers to make informed decisions.

In addition, the ability of researchers to communicate their research in a more readable and understandable format is being increasingly recognised by all research funders as a key skill for scientists.

A lay abstract is not a ‘dumbed down’ version of your research application or findings, but a clear, plain English explanation of your research.

Lay abstracts also provide the context for the research.

Some researchers argue that lay reviewers will favour clinical research. But in reality often the opposite is true. In Asthma UK’s 2009 grant round, the top 20 highest scoring grant applications for lay reviewers comprised 15 basic research proposals and five clinical.

Asthma UK’s lay reviewers are there to comment on the relevance of the research to people affected by asthma and, for example, the practicalities of recruiting and involving participants.

Lay reviewers are not expected to comment on the science – this is the role of the peer reviewers and scientific members of the Research Review Panel. Therefore, it is vitally important that a lay abstract passes the ‘so what?’ test and communicate why the research is important to people with asthma.

• Write your lay abstract as if it’s for a major broadsheet newspaper or a journal such as the Economist.
• Set the scene carefully, and explain how your work fits into the bigger picture.
• Give the reader a reason to care about what you do – explain how your work will help people affected by asthma, even if this is a long way off.
• The first sentence is crucial – you need to engage the reader and invite them to read on. Try to explain your research in 25 words and then use this as your first sentence.
• Find a balance between accuracy and information overload - avoid using too much jargon, technical and scientific terms and acronyms; explain them clearly when you use them.
• Your primary aim is to be easily understood – avoid overly complicated English and uncommon words.
• Be wary of using complex, logical arguments – short sentences and brief arguments will make your research much easier to digest – your average sentence length should be 15-20 words.
• Think about the order and structure of information – use headings and bulleted lists to break up the text.
• Check spelling and grammar closely – any mistakes will undermine your message.
• Finally, to help you view your work from an entirely different perspective, ask at least one non-scientist (this could be a patient, friend or member of the family) to review your abstract and point out phrases or concepts they don’t understand.