Guideline for Researchers
The goal of Open Science DB is to foster open communication between the science research community and the general public by making scientific research publications more accessible to the public. We ask graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculties across the country to summarize scientific publications that resulted from federal funding programs into straightforward and brief summaries that can be understood by the general public. To achieve our goal of making scientific research more accessible to the public, each summary must accurately deliver key findings of the paper(s) being discussed.
To participate, email us at opensciencedb@gmail.com!
Who can contribute summaries of peer-reviewed publications to Open Science DB?
Summaries for Databases should:
After you submit a summary:
Each summary is reviewed by one of our editors (visit our Leadership page to read bios of our editors).
We do our best to assign summaries to editors who have expertise or prior knowledge in the relevant field. However, due to our limited resources, this is not always possible.
Sample outline of a database summary:
A good example of a well written summary can be found here
The goal of Open Science DB is to foster open communication between the science research community and the general public by making scientific research publications more accessible to the public. We ask graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculties across the country to summarize scientific publications that resulted from federal funding programs into straightforward and brief summaries that can be understood by the general public. To achieve our goal of making scientific research more accessible to the public, each summary must accurately deliver key findings of the paper(s) being discussed.
To participate, email us at opensciencedb@gmail.com!
Who can contribute summaries of peer-reviewed publications to Open Science DB?
- Current PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculties in sciences. We refer to volunteer writers as ‘contributors.'
- Contributors can write summaries of their own or someone else's publications.
- We expect contributors to have prior knowledge in the field that they are summarizing articles for. For instance, we require that contributors who are summarizing medical research articles to have basic training in medical chemistry or molecular biology, and contributors summarizing climate research articles to have training in the respective field. We understand that ‘prior knowledge’ could include many disciplines, and if would like to check your eligibility, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us!
Summaries for Databases should:
- Summarize articles published in peer-reviewed journals
- Not include any confidential or unpublished information
- Summarize one paper per summary
- Not exceed 5 paragraphs
- Use 3rd person narrative
- Deliver only facts and the author's (not contributor’s) interpretation of the findings presented in the paper
- Not contain interpretation or/and opinion of the contributor
- Aim for a college reading level. Word has the FleschKincaid grade level readability test as an option during spelling and grammar check (need to enable it through the preferences menu). It combines number of letters per word and number of words per sentences to generate a grade level score.
- Avoid jargon (technical terms), particularly terms that may have different meanings in different fields. One example is the word ‘differentiation’. To scientists, it may mean a cell turning into a different cell. To the lay person, it may mean something different. If a certain term is critical to the article, ensure that it is clearly defined.
After you submit a summary:
Each summary is reviewed by one of our editors (visit our Leadership page to read bios of our editors).
We do our best to assign summaries to editors who have expertise or prior knowledge in the relevant field. However, due to our limited resources, this is not always possible.
Sample outline of a database summary:
- Introduction (1-2 paragraphs): Includes a big picture statement. What makes this paper important to the public? Try to relate it to public good, not just the science community. Make sure this big picture idea is clearly stated in your first paragraph.
- Body paragraph (1-2 paragraphs): Explain the key findings of the paper. Introduce 23 key findings of the paper and authors’ interpretation of the findings.
- Conclusion: Highlight the significance of the paper.
A good example of a well written summary can be found here