I am delighted to announce that, as part of the Europe PubMed Central/British Library Access to Understanding competition, we are asking the public to vote in a People’s Choice award for the best summary of a scientific paper written for a public audience.

The 10 best summaries out of a field of hundreds has already been selected by myself and the other judges, and assessed for their scientific accuracy. Now we want to know what you, the public make of them. Are they interesting? Are they easy to understand?  What did you like about them?  What tips might you give these and other people writing summaries.

Each summary needed to explain why the research was done, what was done and why it was important. Entrants could write about one of 10 articles, each covering fascinating cutting-edge science including combining drug therapies to treat cancer, brain scanning to better understand specific function, a new way to assess effectiveness of arthritis treatments, and an analysis of malaria resistance around the world.

The People’s Choice award is a really important new development for the Access to Understanding competition. We want to find out what people think of the summaries and how successfully the science has been communicated.

So, please get voting now by clicking here.

Votes need to be cast by 1200 GMT on 24 March 2014 an the award winner will be announced at the award ceremony that evening at The British Library (free tickets for this event can be booked on The British Library website (http://www.bl.uk/whatson/events/event156408.html))

Also please re-tweet, forward, blog or whatever your favoured mode of telling your friends is.

Thanks. Have a great weekend.