Hi.
This is Karen McKee, retired scientist and author with another video about scientific
writing.
Today I'm going to be talking about graphical abstracts.
A number of journals are requiring authors to prepare a graphical abstract to be submitted
along with the manuscript.
A graphical abstract is a stand-alone, visual summary of the main findings of the article.
Here are a couple of examples.
Journals typically use graphical abstracts in the online journal's table of contents.
In some cases, the graphical abstract may be a combination of figure and text, as you
see here.
The graphical abstract also can be just a figure from the article or a new figure that
quickly conveys the main findings of the study to a reader.
In this example from one of my papers, the figure is from the article and the text is
condensed from the paper's abstract and written in clear, easy-to-understand language.
Not all authors embrace the idea of graphical abstracts, however, mainly because it's seen
as redundant and a lot of extra work.
In fact, it's not redundant and doesn't have to take a lot of your time to prepare an effective
and compelling graphical abstract.
And, there are several benefits to the author.
For one thing, graphical abstracts act like advertisements for your journal paper.
The graphical abstract in the journal table of contents can pique a reader's interest,
prompting them to read your paper.
The graphical abstract can also show up in an image search.
Here is a paper with a graphical abstract.
An image search using keywords from the title shows the graphical abstract as the top-ranking
item in the list.
The searcher can then access the site hosting the image, which is the journal.
So someone searching for information or images related to this topic will be led to the paper
with the graphical abstract.
A graphical abstract can thus help you reach a larger readership.
Let's now look at how to create a graphical abstract.
The idea is to create something that attracts a reader's attention and makes them want to
read your paper.
I'm going to use one of my own papers to illustrate.
First, read the instructions for your target journal.
The main guidelines for this particular journal are to select a figure that best represents
the scope of the paper and to prepare text of no more than 80 words to accompany the
figure.
I created the graphical abstract with PowerPoint.
First select the page setup to conform to the journal specifications for the figure.
In this case, I used the widescreen aspect ratio to fit in both an image and text alongside.
I decided to use a figure from the paper containing six images that illustrated the study topic
and approach.
I selected a figure with photographs because they were eye-catching and also showed different
views of the plant community we studied.
You might use a diagram, a graph, or a conceptual model, whatever works best with your material.
But you want to make sure the font size in a graph is sufficient to be read in a thumbnail
image.
Next, I condensed the paper's 300-word abstract down to 69 words.
The first sentence set the stage by explaining the overall context and reason for the study.
The second sentence summarized the main finding of the study.
I then pasted the text into a text box in the slide, matching the recommended font type.
The slide was then exported as an image and submitted as an image file to the journal.
Again, select the file format recommended by the journal, in this case a tiff.
The resulting figure was eye-catching, and the text could be digested in a few seconds.
And as you saw, it doesn't take that long to prepare a graphical abstract using a figure
from your study.
If you have more time and the inclination, you can create an entirely new figure to serve
as a graphical abstract.
Thanks for watching and please share this video with your colleagues and students.