Academic journals are the traditional route for the dissemination of research. These journals are often discipline-specific and they mainly target a specialist audience. As a result, journal articles may not be understandable to the general public. Further, relevant research findings may be hidden from the main stream media, leading to information inadequacies or uninformed perspectives among the public and decision makers. As noted in the words of a research user about the public usability of an important journal article, “A summary would have helped! How many people will read this?”

Scientect Research Reports (SRR) fills the above gap through publication of lay summaries of original peer-reviewed journal articles with a clear link to a current societal, policy, industry or academic issue in the main stream news media.

Submission to SRR are welcome from all academic disciplines. Scientect Research Reports is part of our collaborative blog initiative and accepted lay summaries will be published on our blog website and shared on our social media platforms. The lay summaries may be republished by third parties with a link to the original submission. The guidelines for authors are outlined below.

• Word Count: maximum of 800 words
• Should be written in concise and simple language, avoiding any technical terms/jargon or explaining them in plain language where necessary
• Should link research findings to a current trending issue in the main stream media
• Should ensure that the take home message is clear and unambiguous
• Should include link to original research paper
• Should cite and link the journal
• Should include an image representative of the research (optional)

All submissions will be reviewed by an editorial member, an expert in the research area and at least two lay members of the public.

Submissions should be emailed to scientect@gmail.com, indicating the Reference Code SRR in the subject line or use the submission form.