A new study shows a way for that research to reach even more people, spreading new ideas and findings further.
The means: a Twitter-friendly graphic called a visual abstract, which can nearly triple the number of people who click the link in the tweet to read a full paper, the new study shows.
The results are published in the Annals of Surgery, a journal that began creating visual abstracts for selected research papers last July. More than 20 journals across medicine, basic science and social science have started doing the same in recent months, spurred by the rapid success of the Annals effort.
[Clip] Source: Visual Abstract Open Source Primer (A Surgeon’s Journey Through Research & Design)
Researchers have also begun repurposing their visual abstracts in presentations, on the web, in outreach to reporters and on other social media platforms. More journals and institutions now offer help to researchers to marry the scientific expertise needed to make a visual abstract with the design skills to make it readable at a glance.
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
