How to make effective graphical abstracts for your research

Move aside, abstract! Here comes the graphical abstract. In 2024, when AI can summarize hundreds of research papers in minutes, what can a researcher do to make their paper truly stand out? After all, all those years spent in designing the research study, planning experiments, analyzing data and writing the manuscript deserve to reach the research community!

Traditionally an abstract was an essential element to not only summarize the research for journal editors but also for researchers wanting to read the article. It would help people decide if the article was of their interest and what could be gained from reading it. It would contain all the important information from the article.

Today, an increasing number of journals and publishers require a graphical abstract to be prepared along with the article. 

Apart from your own field, it is possible that your article will generate interest from interdisciplinary researchers or even from non-academic individuals. One never knows what new collaborations can result from making your research visually engaging and understandable to a wider audience!

• A graphical abstract can improve visibility of your research.
• A graphical abstract lets people know what to expect in your article.
• Once you have written a text abstract, you can prepare a graphical abstract.
• The graphical abstract uses images to convey a message or summarize your paper.
• Graphical abstracts allow more people to know about your research.

There are articles that summarize important tips for writing a good abstract. Some of these tips still hold true for a graphical abstract as well!

Here are a few basic tips that may help you get started:

1. Write your abstract after finishing writing your paper.
2. Write 1-2 sentences each for Introduction, Hypothesis, Methods, Results and Conclusion.
3. Pick out key graphs/images from the paper to use in a graphical abstract.
4. Imagine what images could be used to make it stand out?
5. Look at some examples of graphical abstracts.
6. Think of what you can add to make your graphical abstract unique!

Related Infographic

Visual storytelling: Differences between graphical abstracts and infographics

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Stand out from the crowd and captivate your audience with a visually compelling representation of your research! Graphical abstracts can help you bridge the gap - so take the plunge!