What is a Visual Abstract?

Graphical representations have been part of academia alongside scientific productions as far as our minds can go through time.

A practice that was not that noticed back then even though it existed, is slowly regaining particular popularity. Indeed, more and more journals are requesting authors to submit with their papers a graphical or visual abstract.

Think about it for a second, in graduate schools, we are taught not to jump right away into a paper, rather, most of us after finding the title catchy and interesting, go through the abstract and then take a glance at the conclusion; well maybe after skimming the introduction ;)
The ultimate result of this process is to be able to visualise the paper as a whole in our mind right? If that’s proven true for scholars, which I am pretty sure is the case, researchers should embrace and accompany this trend put forward by editors - I want to point out that it makes perfect sense that journals now require visual abstracts!

Simply put, a Visual Abstract is a summary of the key findings of an article, presented in a graphical format for easy uptake by readers (don’t confuse it with posters). It gives the reader a quick overview of the main study findings at a glance and helps them decide whether the paper is relevant to their interests. Such a representation of the study also allows for better dissemination of the article to a broad audience. Thus, benefiting both the author as well as the publisher.

You get the point I hope so, now make that blank page off your screen and let us see your visual abstracts.

Learn how to produce awesome graphic abstracts