Sharing Planetary Science in Plain Language

Abstract

In 2016, JGR: Planets became the first AGU journal to begin accepting plain language summaries as a component of research and review articles. Authors began widely participating in this new approach to sharing planetary science in clear language with growth from 18% to 52% of published articles having a summary from the first to last quarters of 2017. In 2018, JGR: Planets joined several other AGU journals in making a plain language summary an expectation of all papers. Plain language summaries are an opportunity to make the rationale for, relevance of, and results from our work clear to a broad audience including students, science journalists, funders, and colleagues outside our specialty, among others. As adoption of and familiarity with, plain language summaries expands the impact of our work within our community and our society will grow too.