A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Views: A Triple Crossover Trial of Visual Abstracts to Examine Their Impact on Research Dissemination (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND The visual abstract is a graphic summary of a research article’s question, methods and major findings. Though they have a number of uses, they are chiefly used to promote a research article on social media. OBJECTIVE To determine if the use of visual abstracts increases the visibility of nephrology research shared on Twitter. METHODS A prospective case-control crossover study was conducted using 40 research articles published in the American Journal of Nephrology (AJN). Each article was shared by the AJN Twitter account in 3 formats: as the article citation, as the citation with a key-figure from the article, and as the citation with a visual abstract. Tweets were spaced every two weeks to allow washout of the previous tweet, and the order of the tweets was randomized. Dissemination was measured via retweets, views, number of link clicks, and Altmetric scores. RESULTS Tweets that contain a visual abstract had more than twice as many views as text only tweets (1,351 ± 1,053 vs 639 ± 343) and nearly twice as many views as key-figure tweets (1,351 ± 1,053 vs 732 ± 464). Visual abstract tweets had 5-times the engagements of citation-only and more than 3.5-times the engagements of key-figure tweets. CONCLUSIONS Tweets that contain a visual abstract had more than twice as many views as text only tweets (1,351 ± 1,053 vs 639 ± 343) and nearly twice as many views as key-figure tweets (1,351 ± 1,053 vs 732 ± 464). Visual abstract tweets had 5-times the engagements of citation-only and more than 3.5-times the engagements of key-figure tweets.

Visual abstract: An innovative way to disseminate scientific research

“…2 Felszeghy et al used a Kahoot gamification program for teaching histology to medical and dental students and concluded that the learning process and participant satisfaction can be significantly improved by introducing Kahoot-based gamification programs in histology courses. 3 Other similar quiz-based gaming applications available are Socrative, Doctor's Dilemma, Quizizz, Quiz maker, Lesson up, Quizlet, and Canvas. 'Ghost mode' on Kahoot allows students to compete against their first attempt to improve their time.…”

“…Since the introduction of this idea in 2016, the concept of VA is being increasingly used by scientific journals, academic conferences and even health magazines to boost visibility of their literary content. 3 This has become even more relevant during the Covid-19 pandemic when virtual-learning platforms including e-education models have been promoted as effective modalities to disseminate continuing medical education and journalistic content. 4 VA provides a concise visual summary to help readers scan and find the most relevant content for them.…”