Scientific publishing is ever evolving as authors and publishers alike seek new and innovative ways to engage with readers and disseminate research results to broader audiences. Discoverability is the key to reaching that audience, and the digital era has brought with it chances to go beyond traditional print media and explore the use of audio and visual content. Advances in the way research is presented, such as visual abstracts and video abstracts, are making research more discoverable and fostering greater opportunities for scholarly communication.
A visual abstract, also referred to as a graphical abstract, is a pictorial representation of your paper that will help readers more quickly understand your take-home message. This graphic representation of your research is actually a faster and more memorable way for readers to engage with your work. It is also something that can be easily shared and disseminated via social media, where posts with visual content have been shown to get more than 94% more views than content without images.
Video abstracts combine audio and visual elements, and allow researchers to expand the reach of their scientific efforts through an increasing popular media—video. Some of the latest statistics have indicated that each week nearly 92% of internet users worldwide watch digital videos, and estimates point to more than 82% of traffic on the internet in 2022 being online videos. With these data in mind, you can certainly see the potentially broad reach a video abstract of your paper can have in this digital era.
So, the next time you’re preparing a manuscript for submission, take a moment to think beyond traditional print media or a simple online textual representation, and consider adding an audio or visual dimension to boost the impact of your paper. The broader reach through digital content like visual or video abstracts will likely mean more people will discover, read, and cite your work.
Click here for the Japanese version.