Plain English Summary Example

The Template

When writing a plain English summary for your journal submission, use the following sections as a template for how to begin:

1. What is the key problem/issue/question this manuscript addresses?
2. Why is this study needed?
3. What is the main point of your study?
4. Provide a brief overview of your results and what they mean.

Each section should be brief – a sentence or two.

An Example from the Journal of Eating Disorders

Original Manuscript

www.jeatdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40337-019-0264-0

What is the key problem/issue/question this manuscript addresses?

Binge Eating Disorder is the most common eating disorder. Still, this disorder is often not addressed by the health care system, and current treatment shows poor results on a large group of these patients.

Why is this study needed?

Difficulties in relating to own body are linked to the development and maintenance of eating disorders in previous research, and seem to influence treatment results and the risk of relapse. Basic Body Awareness Therapy is a psychomotor physiotherapeutic treatment addressing the relation to one’s own body.

What is the main point of your study?

In this study, we have explored in-depth the experiences of two patients with Binge Eating Disorder during their treatment-process with Basic Body Awareness Therapy.

Provide a brief overview of the results and what they mean.

This study indicates that changes in how these patients related to their own bodies during the treatment processes were meaningful to them, and implied a movement toward well-being and accepting one’s own body. Findings from this study inspire more research on body awareness raising approaches in the treatment of patients with Binge Eating Disorder.