{"id":5398,"date":"2022-01-20T14:32:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-20T16:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mindthegraph.com\/?p=5398"},"modified":"2024-06-05T13:50:46","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T16:50:46","slug":"visual-abstract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindthegraph.com\/blog\/visual-abstract\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Visual Abstract and How To Make One in The Easiest Way"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Academic life requires a good domain of writing a paper. However, the scientific life outside the laboratory demands more than that. It demands getting updated with new techniques and tools. On that matter, there is a new and trending expression popping out: visual abstract.<\/span> Also known as Graphical Abstract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Especially for Life sciences and Health sciences, visual abstract and scientific infographics have been good partners to communicate new findings and relevant information to other scientists and lay audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, other sciences are only now finding out the benefits of using visual stimuli to reach different and bigger audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around the world, many journals are already adapting their content to this new visual abstract format. Also, with recent changes in publishing format, almost all the publishing houses are encouraging submission with visual abstracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The publishers are adopting visual elements, infographics, and visual abstracts in all sorts of scientific areas, including non-biological fields, like Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, etc, although apparently the “movement” started in Physiology, Pharmacology, Biochemistry, Neuroscience, and other medical-related fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Are Visual Abstracts?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Visual abstracts are high-resolution images representing the overall idea of a research paper. They can summarize research articles, review articles, or short communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The visual abstracts intend to make the reader aware of the research article in a few minutes and usually contains the overall idea of experimental design, hypothesis, and an indication of results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They allow fast screening of the information, while also stimulating further exploration of the research topic.\u00a0Some figures are so innovative and spectacular that they make us question ourselves as to how they were made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Create your Visual Abstract in Minutes with Mind the Graph<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Undoubtedly, making a good visual abstract is no easy feat. You must have a clear and thorough idea of the subject before even starting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if you follow all the rules of data visualization and look for hundreds of tutorials, practice is indeed the only way to perfection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as scientists, we are not aiming to be known for our perfect art or designing skills. Our goal is to simply communicate our findings. If we have trouble doing that \u2014 and we often do \u2014 then we have a problem that needs solving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ok, first things first. What does it mean to have good communication in the scientific world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s take a look at some visual abstracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"visual<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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It looks pretty basic, right? That\u2019s because it is supposed to be that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can be a bit surprising but this simple-looking visual abstract was published in Nature Reviews Cancer<\/a>, the renowned peer-reviewed scientific journal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does that tell us? That even the biggest journals don\u2019t want you to be the best graphic designer in the world. What they want is graphical material that effectively supports the text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Test The Visual Abstract Maker Now<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Types of visual abstracts<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Diagram-style: <\/strong>Usually helps when there are plenty of molecular structures involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Infographic style: <\/strong>Preferred when you have images with high visual impacts and text to be incorporated into the same diagram. You can try the Mind the Graph’s infographic Maker<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comic type: <\/strong>The most appropriate type for communicating in magazines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Use Visual Abstract?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The pictorial communications are well-received by the audience in the gathering. Similarly, a few-page long article is concisely presented in one image by a visual abstract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using visual abstracts is an effective way of narrating the crucial points to be conveyed by the author. It also becomes a quick review object of the research article and saves time for the reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A well-presented visual abstract ultimately represents the whole story of a research paper and becomes the heart of the article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pragmatically, visual abstracts also enhance page views (i.e. bring readers) and increase the chance of being cited in other publications!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is one example of an interesting image from a paper published in “Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology” that used an infographic in the visual abstract to attract the attention of the readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paper with a visual abstract has over 2 times more page views than the average of the edition in which it was published. It’s 200% more audience to learn about your scientific findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"visual-abstract-example\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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According to a famous study mentioned in the Economist “Graphic Details: The Importance of Diagrams to Science<\/a>” having an infographic as a visual element in the paper increases citations by 120%. So\u2026 why not use a visual abstract? Sounds like the right thing to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How To Make a Visual Abstract?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When thinking about creating a visual abstract for your research paper, here are a couple of questions you can ask yourself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n