The popular scientific summary is an important part of disseminating your doctoral thesis to the outside world. You yourself write the draft content of the popular scientific summary by using the popular scientific summary form, and the department of communications ensures publication on inn.no and distribution to the press.
Tips for writing a popular scientific summary
A popular scientific summary should contain new information. Explain what your research has to offer people outside your academic field. Think about social benefits. Think about usability. Think of concrete examples.
- Headline: Create a good and short title that captures the interest
- The main thing first: Start with the conclusion – what have you discovered?
- What are the "new" things you do in your doctoral thesis?
- Highlight: Concentrate on one main point, not the entire thesis
- Avoid details: Think key facts – avoid reservations and clarifications
- Active sentences: Use direct language, avoid generalisations and passive forms
- Write succinctly: One-third of a page with single line spacing (max 1500 characters including spaces)
- Write simply: use everyday language, avoid discipline-specific expressions
- Quote yourself: Feel free to use your own wording or quotations from the thesis
Please read aloud the popular scientific summary for a friend who is not an academic. If the text is well suited for reading aloud, it will almost always flow well in written form as well.
Take a look at the public defences overview at inn.no to see how previous articles / popular scientific summaries have been formulated.
Submission of popular scientific summary form
The form for dissemination of PhD thesis together with an electronic photo (jpg, landscape format and a minimum of 1 MB) of yourself should be sent to ole.ringlund@inn.no, with PhD coordinator at your programme on CC, three weeks before the defence.The department of communication will publish an article on INN University's website and will assess how the doctoral thesis can be communicated to other sources approximately two weeks before the public defence.