How to increase public access to and appreciation for academic research (essay)

"I am advocating that researchers be given more opportunities to share the impacts of their research that are far-reaching and offer a low barrier to participation. Specifically, I’m recommending the development of a journal-curated mechanism that would encourage an author to simultaneously submit what I am calling a General Public Summary.

This one-page document would:

• inform readers of the gist and societal impact of the original scientific article;
• be written in regular English;
• be housed on the publisher’s website (like the abstract), and;
• be free to the public.

Just like the formal manuscript, this relatable summary should also be peer reviewed to ensure its accuracy and accessibility. Software now exists that can quickly assess the reading level of any digital document. So we should limit the complexity of the General Public Summary to, say, an eighth-grade reading level -- not because society is illiterate, but because our public school education generally doesn’t teach us words like 'pandiculation' (which means, among other things, yawning)."