Writing is hard. Writing about complex concepts is even harder. Writing about complex concepts with little training, that's research communication. And while research writing is difficult and often under-taught, it is critical to the success of a researcher. Implicit in the dictum publish or perish, is that you must write. Researchers write papers, syllabi, grants, progress reports and a variety of different documents on a daily basis. Yet researchers don't typically write for the public or for fun. Today, we'd like to change that, with the Up Goer Five Challenge! A contest that challenges researchers to use only the ten hundred most common words to explain their research. We're offering everyone that participates in the Upgoer five challenge on Authorea a free premium membership for a year! We think such a challenge is great for PIs, postdocs, students, and anyone doing research. We also think it's fun!
“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.”