A Beginner's Guide On Plain Language Summary (+ 10 Best Tools For It)

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Have you ever struggled to concentrate complex research findings into easy-to-understand summaries? Creating effective Research Summary can be challenging, especially when the material is technical or full of usage.

But don't worry; we've got you covered. This guide will explore Plain Language Summary and reveal how it can help you enhance your writing skills. By mastering Plain Language Summary, you can write efficient papers, summaries, and articles with AI in no time, making the process easier.

Looking to smooth your writing and generate compelling summaries effortlessly? Unriddle's AI Writing Tool is a game changer. By leveraging this enhanced solution, you can transform your writing process and achieve your goal of making flawless papers, summaries, and articles with AI quickly and efficiently.

What Is A Plain Language Summary?

Imagine you are an expert in Research Summary. A Plain Language Summary (also referred to as a lay summary in some subject areas) communicates the significance of scholarly and scientific research evidence to wide audiences in clear, jargon-free language.

The audiences include, but are not limited to, practitioners, policymakers, the public, and/or professionals in nearby disciplines. Plain Language Summaries (PLS) can describe original research, review articles, case reports, clinical trials, and conference/congress abstracts, among other scientific publications.

How Do You Write A Good Plain Language Summary

When crafting a Plain Language Summary (PLS), I focus on using straightforward language that's easy to understand. This means avoiding jargon, complex terminology, and niche language that might confuse readers. Instead, I strive to explain concepts clearly and concisely, making them accessible to a broad audience.

Writing Concise Plain Language Summary

To keep the Text Plain Language Summary (PLS) concise and impactful, I aim to craft a summary within a 250-word limit.

This helps ensure the summary effectively conveys the key points without overwhelming the reader. By placing the PLS between the abstract and the introduction of a manuscript, I create a natural flow that introduces the study's findings in a reader-friendly way.

Seeking Feedback

Once the Plain Language Summary (PLS) is completed, I often invite non-specialists who lack familiarity with the topic to review it. This feedback is crucial in gauging how well the summary communicates the study's significance, findings, and potential impact to a general audience. It also helps to identify areas that may need further clarification or simplification.

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Unriddle allows you to read faster and write better. Quickly find info in documents, simplify complex topics, take notes, and write with the power of AI. Unriddle is trusted by thousands of researchers and students, from the classroom to the boardroom.

Unriddle generates an AI assistant on top of any document so you can quickly find, summarize, and understand info—no more endless skimming. Unriddle understands the meaning behind your writing and automatically links you to relevant things you’ve read and written about in the past. Highlight text and Unriddle will show you the most relevant sources from your library using AI. Never lose a citation again.

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10 Best Plain Language Summary Tools To Try Right Now

1. Unriddle.AI: Enhancing Research with AI

Unriddle.AI is a powerful tool that streamlines the research process by facilitating faster reading and improved writing. It taps into the power of AI to deliver a suite of invaluable features for researchers and students.

As a research assistant, Unriddle identifies, summarizes, and simplifies complex information from documents. It saves you time by extracting the most relevant information and linking it to your past research, thus helping you build on your existing knowledge base.

The tool also helps highlight critical text, generate text using AI autocomplete, and provide a collaborative workspace for real-time document editing. Unriddle.AI is a one-stop shop for optimizing your research process, making it a must-try for anyone involved in research.

2. SciSummary: Making Research More Accessible

SciSummary is a game-changer for scientists, students, and research enthusiasts who are pressed for time but must keep up with the latest scientific breakthroughs. Using advanced AI models like GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, SciSummary generates clear and concise summaries of scientific articles and research papers in a matter of minutes.

The technology evolves continuously as a team of PhDs reviews the summaries and guides the model's training, ensuring that the tool stays at the cutting edge of summarizing research findings. SciSummary lets you stay informed about scientific discoveries without sifting through long, intricate articles, thus streamlining your research process.

3. Summary by Google Docs: Revolutionizing Document Summarization

Google Docs has introduced a new "summary" feature that leverages the latest AI technology to generate concise summaries of content automatically. This feature is a boon for students looking to distill key ideas and best sentences from their papers quickly.

With just a click, Google Docs summarizes the main points of your document, allowing you to focus on the high-impact aspects of your research. This new feature simplifies the process of creating summaries, enhancing productivity and helping students generate clear and effective summaries effortlessly.

4. Elicit: Redefining Research Automation

Elicit automates time-consuming research tasks such as summarizing papers, extracting data, and synthesizing findings. The tool provides one-sentence abstract summaries, enables users to select relevant papers and search for similar ones, and helps organize extracted data into a structured table.

Elicit streamlines the research process by automating crucial tasks, making it ideal for researchers looking to boost efficiency and accuracy in their work.

5. Summarizer: Simplifying Research Paper Summarization

Summarizer is a free online tool designed to create summaries of text swiftly. The tool is particularly beneficial for students seeking to grasp the main points of a paper within seconds by using Summarizer.

Students can save valuable time during the research paper writing process by creating a concise version of the text. The tool streamlines the research process by offering a quick overview of papers, which can be used as a solid reference point during the writing process.

6. Scholarcy: Enhancing Reading and Summarization

Scholarly allows users to import files from various sources, such as online articles, downloaded chapters, PDFs, and Word documents. The tool lets users adjust the summary to their reading preference, from a single sentence to a researcher-level overview. Scholarly enhances the research process by providing customizable and detailed summaries tailored to individual reading styles.

7. Grammar Check: Ensuring Clarity and Precision

Grammar Check is a vital tool for students to edit and proofread their summaries, guaranteeing error-free content. By highlighting writing errors and providing suggestions for corrections, the tool helps students improve their writing skills. Grammar Check ensures that the content is clear, coherent, and error-free, thus enhancing the quality of research summaries.

8. Quillbot: Streamlining Research Summarization

Quillbot is a web-based tool powered by AI algorithms and NLP, enabling users to summarize articles efficiently. The tool maintains the original context while condensing information to the core ideas.

Quillbot provides the flexibility of two modes, Paragraphs, and Key Sentences, allowing users to define the format of their summaries. Quillbot is a valuable asset for anyone looking to summarize content quickly while retaining the essence of the source material.

9. TLDR This: Simplifying Article Summarization

TLDR This is a user-friendly tool that transforms articles into concise, easy-to-digest summaries. The tool allows users to generate AI-generated advanced summaries with a few clicks, making it an excellent resource for content writers, readers, and researchers. By pasting the article link or text into the tool, users can create advanced summaries effortlessly, streamlining the research process.

10. SMMRY: Customized Summarization

SMMRY is a popular and free AI-based article summarizer that allows users to summarize content without limitations. The clutter-free UI of SMMRY caters to both beginners and professionals, providing a seamless summarization experience.

The tool offers customization options, allowing users to focus the summary on specific topics or themes. SMMRY is a versatile tool that enhances the research process by offering tailored summaries that meet individual requirements.

Complete Step-by-Step Guide On How To Use Unriddle's AI Research Tool

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to use Unriddle. I’ve also copied it below :)

From here, it's pretty simple.

Unriddle helps you read, write and learn faster.

Interact with documents via AI so you can quickly find and understand info.

Then start writing in a new Note and Unriddle will show you relevant content from your library as you type.

Get started by uploading a document.

Or read on for the full rundown.

Interact with documents

When you upload a document, Unriddle generates an AI assistant on top of this data.

Click 'New' in the right sidebar and then select 'Upload' to get started.

Use this assistant to answer specific questions about the text, summarize content and simplify jargon.

The trick is to be super clear about what you want.

If you're summarizing a research paper, for example, instead of saying “Summarize” or “Summarize this research paper”, say something like “Explain this research paper to me in simple terms. What method did the researchers use? What did they find? Why does it matter?”.

The second prompt will produce a much better overview of the paper because we're giving the AI more hints about what we want.

Automatic relations

Unriddle grasps the context behind each Note and Document in your library and automatically links them based on meaning.

Let's say you have a collection of nuclear physics papers in your library.

When you start writing a note about The Manhattan Project, simply mentioning "The Manhattan Project" will prompt Unriddle to find the connection between this note and the nuclear physics papers.

Even if you didn't explicitly mention the research papers, Unriddle's knowledge of Oppenheimer, his work, and the significant relevance of these papers means it understands the connection and automatically links them together.

In short, Unriddle shows you relevant content from your library at the exact moment you need it, even if you haven't explicitly mentioned it.

Citing your sources

Writing is hard when you have a ton of sources to track.

So we made it easy.

Highlight some text, click ‘Cite’ and you’ll see items from your library that contain information related to the selection of text you just highlighted as determined by our AI.

When you select an item Unriddle inserts a link into highlighted text that, when clicked, takes you to the referenced item.

Writing with AI

Click ‘New’ in the sidebar and hit ‘Note’ to open up a new note.

Here you’ll find all the text formatting options you’re used to and more.

Type ‘++’ to generate text based on the context of what’s already written.

Highlight text and click ‘Ask AI’ to open up the AI menu where you’ll find options to improve, expand, summarize and explain.

You can type custom prompts too!

Finally, you can open any note in a pane on the right side of the screen while interacting with documents. Just click the orange pencil icon at the top of the chat window.

Chat Settings

Adjust the model, temperature and response length in the Setting sidebar.

Click the cog icon in the top right corner of the screen and look for "Chat Settings".

These apply across all documents but you can easily flip between them regardless of settings at the time of upload.

Model: the machine learning model used to generate responses.

Temperature: the amount of creative license you give to the AI.

Max length: the maximum number of words generated in a response.

Got feedback or questions? Send us an email and we'll get back to you within a day.

— Naveed

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Plain Language Summary Example

1. Characteristics of the ENSEMBLE Trial

The ENSEMBLE study began in September 2020 and is ongoing. This research aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Janssen Ad26.COV2.S vaccine against COVID-19 by comparing it to a placebo in 43,783 adult participants from Latin America, South Africa, and the United States. Out of these participants, 19,630 received a single dose of the vaccine.

2. Results of the ENSEMBLE Trial

Compared to the placebo, the vaccine demonstrated significant efficacy in preventing COVID-19 cases of varying severity. After 14 days, the vaccine was observed to prevent 66.9% of moderate to severe–critical COVID-19 cases.

This prevention rate increased to 66.1% after 28 days and rose to 85.4% for severe COVID-19 cases. Impressively, the vaccine prevented all participants with severe COVID-19 from needing hospitalization. Notably, none of the vaccinated individuals died from COVID-19 throughout the study, whereas 5 individuals who received the placebo succumbed to the infection.

The study also revealed that the vaccine was effective across all age groups and geographic locations, including South Africa, where cases were primarily caused by the beta variant. Vaccinated individuals who contracted COVID-19 experienced milder symptoms compared to those who received the placebo. The vaccine generally demonstrated efficacy within 2 weeks of administration.

3. Side Effects of the Vaccine

Post-vaccination, some participants experienced mild side effects such as pain at the injection site, headache, tiredness, muscle pain, and nausea. These symptoms typically resolve within a few days. Serious side effects were rare, with blood clots, seizures, and tinnitus reported more frequently in vaccinated individuals than those who received the placebo. However, at the time of the study, it was uncertain whether these rare side effects were directly caused by the vaccine or were incidental.

Plain Language Summary Insights

1. Additional Observations

The ENSEMBLE trial findings underscore the efficacy and safety of the Janssen Ad26.COV2.S vaccine in preventing severe COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. The positive outcomes across diverse demographics and regions, as well as the milder symptomatic course in vaccinated individuals, highlight the potential impact of this vaccine in managing the COVID-19 pandemic.

2. Future Implications

The results of this trial provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of the Janssen vaccine and its capacity to combat severe COVID-19 cases, particularly in populations at higher risk. The ongoing assessment of vaccine-related side effects and continued monitoring of its efficacy against emerging variants will further elucidate the vaccine's role in controlling the spread and impact of COVID-19 globally.

Read Faster & Write Better With Unriddle for Free Today

Unriddle is an Enhanced platform that offers a wide range of powerful features designed to help users read faster and write more effectively. With Unriddle, you can quickly access information in documents, simplify complex topics, take notes, and harness the power of AI to bolster your productivity.

By generating an AI assistant on top of any document, Unriddle allows you to effortlessly find and understand information without the need for endless skimming. Furthermore, Unriddle has the unique ability to discern the meaning behind your writing and automatically connect you to relevant items you have read or written about.

Why waste time searching for citations when Unriddle can do the heavy lifting for you? With Unriddle, you can rest assured that you will never lose a citation again. Looking to enhance your writing skills? Unriddle can help with that, too. The platform enables you to generate text with AI autocomplete, providing contextually relevant suggestions to the content you are working on.

Additionally, Unriddle fosters a collaborative environment where multiple users can contribute and communicate in real time while working on the same documents. With Unriddle, you can expect a seamless, efficient, and productive writing experience—sign up for free today and take your research and writing to the next level. Read faster & write better — try Unriddle for free today.