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About This Course

This 60-minute, free-to-access course will guide students through the process of creating a plain language summary (PLS) to accompany their research paper. Plain language summaries are becoming frequently used to help non-specialists - such as patients and general practitioners - quickly understand the key messages of a biomedical research paper.


This course has been created with help from our friends at scholarcy.

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Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, students will be able to:

  • define what a PLS is.

  • list the reasons why PLS are important.

  • write a clear, easily understandable PLS.

  • organize quality check and review of their PLS.

Course curriculum

    1. Welcome To The Course!

    1. What is a PLS?

    2. Exercises: What Is a PLS?

    3. Do PLS Work?

    4. Are PLS Important? The Patient Perspective

    5. Are PLS Important? The Researcher Perspective

    1. Preparation

    2. Writing

    3. Review

    1. Preparation

    2. Writing

    3. Review

    1. Automated Summary Generator

    1. Downloadable Summary

    2. References

    1. Final Quiz for Certification (minimum score of 80% required to pass)

About this course

  • Free
  • 16 lessons
  • 0.5 hours of video content
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