Graphical Abstracts in Open Access Research: Visibility and Impact

Blog Highlights and Key Takeaways

• Graphical abstracts help extend your research’s reach to a wide audience.
• Open access research papers shared along with graphical abstracts are likely to be viewed more.
• You can get people discussing your research on social media through effective graphical abstracts.

Introduction

Open access articles help researchers reach a wide audience: fellow-researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and the general public. But how do you make sure that you create the right impact? Time to explore creative modes of communication! 

Today, it’s all about visuals. Visuals capture attention, simplify complex information, and enhance communication. They make content more engaging, memorable, and accessible. And science chose “graphical abstracts” as the mode of visual communication. But how exactly do graphical abstracts benefit authors? And how does it impact open access research? Let’s get learning! 

Why Graphical Abstracts are Needed

Benefits of Graphical Abstracts

Open Access and Graphical Abstracts

Why Graphical Abstracts are Needed

In scientific communication, graphical abstracts go beyond the written word and bridge the gap between the scientific community and broader audiences, ensuring that the research findings are understood and applied in real-world settings. Visual tools like graphical abstracts 

• help convey messages quickly, 
• improve comprehension, and 
• are essential for building social media engagement and public scientific literacy. 

A good graphical abstract is more than a visual summary of a research paper; it helps viewers quickly grasp the key aspects of the study. When browsing research papers for literature review, researchers want a quick way of identifying which papers are relevant to them. And graphical abstracts play this role perfectly. 

Benefits of Graphical Abstracts

A graphical abstract helps you as a researcher in many ways, especially in amplifying the impact of your study. This has been proven over the years by various studies exploring how graphical abstracts perform in different disciplines on various platforms.

1. It attracts readers: Ibrahim et al.[1] found that social media posts of articles with graphical abstracts were 8 times more likely to be shared than social media posts of articles without a graphical abstract.

2. It improves your Altmetric scores: Bennett and Slattery [2] found that in the field of sport science, articles published with a graphical abstract had higher Altmetric scores than articles without a graphical abstract.

3. It improves citation counts: Kim et al. [3]found that articles with graphical abstracts had higher Web of Science citation counts than those without, and that graphical abstracts were effective in increasing citation counts even after adjusting for journal impact factor.

4. It could increase the number of article clicks: Graphical abstracts make browsing easier. Lee and Yoo [4] suggested that including a graphical abstract might increase the number of article clicks, benefitting both journals and authors. 

5. It improves social media engagement: A randomized controlled trial evaluating plain English and graphical abstracts in the field of surgery [5] showed that graphical abstracts increased social media engagement, especially from other healthcare professionals. Another triple crossover trial in nephrology [6] showed that article tweets containing a graphical abstract had 5 times the engagement with only a citation; and tweets containing a key figure from the research paper had more than 3.5 times the engagement. Hoffberg et al.’s [7] randomized crossover trial further supported these findings. 

Open Access and Graphical Abstracts

Open access publishing is one of the most sought-after ways of communicating research with lay people and subject specialists. And what better way to improve the reach, impact, and accessibility of your research than accompanying your article with a graphical abstract? Here’s how it can benefit you.
1. Improved Accessibility and Understanding: The non-paywalled open access articles available to the public reach a diverse audience. And when combined with graphical abstracts, these research findings become more accessible to a broader audience, leading to increased readership and engagement.

2. Enhanced Discoverability: Visual content attracts more attention online compared to text-only articles. When researchers and readers browse open access databases, journals, or social media platforms, graphical abstracts can stand out, helping research to be discovered more easily. This increased visibility can lead to more citations and broader dissemination.

3. Wider Dissemination via Social Media: Graphical abstracts are highly shareable on social media platforms. With a layout that’s social-media-platform-friendly, the visual appeal and easy-to-understand format could make your research worth sharing, leading to active discussions. 

4. Expedited Collaboration: Open access often leads to more rapid sharing of research, and graphical abstracts can accelerate the communication of research concepts, enhancing collaboration opportunities. 

Final Thoughts

An increasing number of journals are encouraging authors to make a graphical abstract, especially as preliminary findings by Kim et al. (2022) [3] suggested that the longer a journal utilizes graphical abstracts, the higher its impact factor. Graphical abstracts can be valuable tools for boosting your research’s reach and impact, building your reputation in your field, and expanding your network.

References 

1. Visual abstracts to disseminate research on social media https://journals.lww.com/annalsofsurgery/citation/2017/12000/visual_abstracts_to_disseminate_research_on_social.36.aspx 

2. Graphical abstracts are associated with greater Altmetric attention scores but not citations in sports science https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-023-04709-2 

3. Seeing Is Believing: The Effect of Graphical Abstracts on Citations and Social Media Exposure in Gastroenterology & Hepatology Journalshttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36413796/

4. The current state of graphical abstracts and how to create good graphical abstracts https://www.escienceediting.org/journal/view.php?number=299&view=citations 

5. Randomized controlled trial of plain English and visual abstracts for disseminating surgical research via social media https://academic.oup.com/bjs/article-abstract/106/12/1611/6121140?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=fal 

6. A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Views: A Triple Crossover Trial of Visual Abstracts to Examine Their Impact on Research Disseminationhttps://www.jmir.org/2020/12/e22327

7. Beyond journals—Visual abstracts promote wider suicide prevention research dissemination and engagement: A randomized crossover trial https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/research-metrics-and-analytics/articles/10.3389/frma.2020.564193/full 

Looking to make your research more impactful? Check out Editage’s Graphical Abstract Design Services and get professional support to make your research stand out.

Originally published on October 21, 2014. Revised on March 4, 2026