Your final report will now be public

In a recently-released notice, NIH announced that all Project Outcomes sections from interim and final RPPR reports will be made public.  This applies to all submissions starting October 1, 2017.  The reports will be available in the NIH RePORTER.  This is an important step toward showing transparency in publicly-funded research.  It will be interesting to see how it is received by the public.  There has been considerable outcry in the past over NIH-funded research, including studies of sexy goldfish, origami condoms, and poop-throwing monkeys. Although this new policy is based on good intentions, I can't help but wonder if it will hurt scientists whose potential research impact is not obvious to those without particular scientific knowledge.  To help prevent this type of scrutiny, it is important to write your Project Outcomes section in clear language that can be easily understood by the public.