Joanne Walker

Plain language summaries of publications (PLSPs) are standalone articles intended to present research in a way that can be understood by broad, non-specialist audiences1,2. They use easy-to-underst...

Key points: Patient authorship is a new topic in medical publishing, with the number of patient‐authored publications growing rapidly. Publication stakeholders (e.g., editors, publishers, funders, researchers) should be aware of the legitimacy of patient authorship. Practical actions can be taken by different publication stakeholders to encourage and support patient authorship—ethically and effectively. Patient authorship can contribute to enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in medical publishing. Research on patient authorship could be strengthened with consensus on publication tagging practices (e.g., affiliation terms) and the use of artificial intelligence. A plain language summary of this article and the GRIPP2 form for reporting patient involvement are available as supplementary information.

What is this summary about? This summary describes the research carried out by the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF for short) during a review and update of their lung cancer sc...

What is this summary about? This article provides a plain language summary and patient perspective of a new set of recommendations made by the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO for short)...

What is this summary about? This is a plain language summary of a guideline on the management of stage 3 non-small-cell lung cancer, also known as NSCLC. This guideline was written by the American ...

What is this summary about? This is a summary of a research study called revised STARS. The STARS study involved people with non-small-cell lung cancer, also known as NSCLC. The cancer was less tha...

What is this summary about? This is a plain language summary of a medical journal article called ‘Cancer statistics, 2022’. The data in this summary provides detailed information about lung cancer ...

Key points: Plain language summaries (PLS) are accessible, short, peer‐reviewed summaries of scholarly journal articles written in non‐technical language. The aim of PLS is to enable a broader audience of experts and non‐experts to understand the original article. Here, we outline the evidence base for the value and impact of PLS and how they can enable diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in scholarly publishing. PLS can diversify readership and authorship, address information inequity, include typically under‐represented stakeholders and provide an accessible route into scholarly literature.

Background: Patient advocates are increasingly authoring peer-reviewed publications that could enhance patient care and understanding of the lived experience. Although patient authorship may be seen as an innovation in the peer-reviewed publication environment and some may not be aware of or accept patient authorship, we know patient-authored publications exist. However, identifying patient-authored publications is often challenging and time-consuming. Main body: In this commentary, we propose a definition for a patient author and patient-authored publications. We outline factors driving the increase in patient authorship, including patient interest, recognition of the value of including the patient voice and major funders recognising the importance of involving patient advocates in research. Evidence and experience-based guidance on patient authorship is emerging, and we highlight practical guidance for patient advocates on authoring peer-reviewed publications. To gain a better understanding of patient authorship, an efficient method is needed to identify patient-authored publications. A dataset on patient-authored publications could be used for a range of quantitative and qualitative research studies. The affiliation search function in PubMed can provide an easy, and reproducible way to identify a dataset of patient-authored publications in the international peer-reviewed literature, but only if patient authors include a standard metatag, (e.g. Patient Author) as one of their listed affiliations, combined with other affiliations as appropriate. From 2020 to 2021, there was a nine-fold increase in patient-authored publications in PubMed identified using the Patient Author tag. We recognize that terminology can be contentious and some authors may prefer alternative metatags. Further efforts are required to gain consensus on a suitable, standard metatag or set of metatags to use to show the true extent of patient authorship. Conclusion: Patient authorship is not only legitimate, but it also exemplifies the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion. Stakeholders in the publication community need to review their policies and procedures to identify and address barriers to patient authorship. Patient advocates, funders, researchers and publishers could all help to promote awareness and acceptance of patient authorship and the merits of using a standard metatag or set of metatags, so that patient-authored publications are no longer hidden in plain sight.