Writing scientific papers that are clearer to read could help to close this gap and increase the usefulness of scientific research ( Freeling et al., 2019 Letchford et al., 2015 Heard, 2014 Glasziou et al., 2014). This information overload is driving a ‘knowledge-ignorance paradox’ whereby information increases but knowledge that can be put to good use does not ( Jeschke et al., 2019). As the number of scientific papers published every year continues to grow, individual papers are also becoming increasingly specialised and complex ( Delanty, 1998 Bornmann and Mutz, 2015 Doubleday and Connell, 2017 Cordero et al., 2016 Plavén-Sigray et al., 2017).