Table 3. Compliance for all elements and subelements of PLSs.

Element	Subelement	Frequency in author instructions (N=53)	Compliance score all PLSs	Percentage compliance	Compliance rating*
Word count/PLS length	Maximum number of words	38	70	92.1%	High
	PLS length	15	10	50%	Low
Content	Based on manuscript	24	46	95.8%	High
	Background	17	26	76.5%	Medium
	Methods	15	25	83.3%	High
	Main findings/take-home message	29	35	60.0%	Medium
	Impact/’so what’ of research	18	23	63.9%	Medium
	Other	3	1	16.7%	Very low
Structure	Bullet points	10	8	40%	Low
	Paragraph style or similar	48	68	70.1%	Medium
	Other	3	3	50%	Low
Wording/language	Plain English/easy to understand	43	31	36.0%	Low
	Active voice	29	25	43.1%	Low
	First person	3	0	0%	Very low
	Person-centred language	9	14	77.8%	Medium
	Reading level/Readability	2	4	50%	Low
	Other	18	18	50%	Low
Jargon, acronyms and abbreviations	Jargon—explain or avoid	32	31	48.4%	Low
	Abbreviations—explain or avoid	29	56	96.6%	High

^*High =≥80%, medium=51%–79%, low=50%–31%, Vvery low =≤30%.

PLSsplain language summaries