Recognizing the vital role of patients in medical and scientific research, last year the Future Science Group (FSG) published a new style of article – a Plain Language Summary of Publication, the first of its kind for FSG. The article, published in Future Oncology, provides a summary of a recently published paper and has been written and designed specifically to be read by patient and non-specialist audiences to help them to understand the research presented.

In the accompanying editorial, by Joanne Walker and Laura Dormer entitled ‘Plain Language Summary of Publication articles: helping disseminate published scientific articles to patients’, we discuss our rationale for publishing Plain Language Summary of Publication articles.

We hope that readers will find PLSP articles a useful resource that help to drive the involvement of patients and their representatives in the development of new medicines and in making health care decisions