Recently the editors of Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth have announced that plain language summaries (PLS) will be required for all manuscripts submitted to the journal. With readers inundated with research in this field, the editorial board of the journal took the decision mandate the submission of a PLS with every paper to allow a broad audience to understand its findings of the work. Recognising that PLS mean extra work for the authors, they offset this by explaining that adding a PLS will significantly increase the audience papers, helping journalists, science writers, policymakers, and industrials understand the research discussed.
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