{"id":30228,"date":"2024-11-20T06:55:45","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T06:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights-new\/?p=30228"},"modified":"2026-04-15T14:19:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T08:49:58","slug":"how-to-make-graphical-abstracts-for-review-papers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/how-to-make-graphical-abstracts-for-review-papers","title":{"rendered":"How to make graphical abstracts for review papers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Key takeaway:<\/strong> Design a graphical abstract for a review paper by identifying 2-3 core themes, representing them visually in less than 50 words, arranging them left-right and top-down, ensuring the graphical abstract is legible even in condensed view, and complying with your target journal’s technical specifications.<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n

Review articles and original research articles serve different purposes in scholarly communication. Review articles synthesize findings from multiple studies on a topic, providing a comprehensive overview. Meanwhile, original articles present new findings, offering in-depth, specific data and insights on a focused topic. Both article types stand to benefit from graphical abstracts. In this post, we will discuss how to make graphical abstracts for review papers.<\/p>\n

What is a graphical abstract?<\/h2>\n

A graphical abstract is a clear, brief, and visual snapshot of the main findings of a manuscript, communicating the essence of the article and its key message. To effectively reach a diverse audience, journals and academic publishers are incorporating web-friendly elements like graphical abstracts into their submissions. Graphical abstracts are also used in a journal\u2019s table of contents and feeds such as RSS feeds.<\/p>\n

Why make a graphical abstract for a review paper?<\/h2>\n

A graphical abstract helps your review article stand out and attract more citations. Review articles with graphical abstracts become more visible and shareable, resulting in a wider reach and readership.<\/p>\n

Review articles are of great value to researchers and students because they summarize relevant studies, providing insights into trends, methodologies, and gaps in the literature. Therefore, they are commonly referred to when determining future research directions. However, review articles can be long and information-heavy. Moreover, there appears to be a trend of declining readability of scientific literature<\/a>. Here’s where graphical abstracts can help.<\/p>\n

Example:<\/h3>\n

This review article<\/a> published in Materials Advances was featured as being a highly cited review article. Do you see the accompanying graphical abstract (also referred to as \u201cTable of contents entry\u201d)? Like many journals, Materials Advances (a journal publishing only reviews) asks for a catchy graphical abstract containing up to two sentences of text for its table of contents and web feeds (see a sample contents page<\/a> with graphical abstracts).<\/p>\n

You must be wondering, \u201cHow to make graphical abstracts for review papers?\u201d Read on to know more!<\/p>\n

How to make a graphical abstract for a review paper<\/h2>\n

When designing <\/a>the graphical abstract of a review paper,<\/p>\n